From Vancouver to Montreal, Caribbean festivals are alive and thriving

BY: Simona Siad

“Wherever you find Trinidadians, you will find a carnival.”

That’s according to Henry Antoine, president of the Montreal Carnival Development Foundation, who is chatting with me on the phone from Montreal. Antoine decides to prove it to me.

He asks me who else I’ve interviewed and I tell him I just talked to the chair of the Caribbean Days festival in Vancouver who told me he is also from Trinidad.

“What’s his name?” he asks me.

“Rudolph Marshall,” I reply, not quite sure what he is hinting at.

“I know him,” he says, howling in laughter.

He dials his number and within seconds we are in a three-way, cross-country conversation as the two men laugh and reminisce over the “old days” of carnival in Montreal, ask each other how their wives are doing and lament the difficulties of finding festival sponsorship.

While our country may be vast and wide, the Caribbean community and festival circuit certainly isn’t. And it seems almost everyone who puts on such events, from Vancouver to Montreal, knows someone involved in another city or has a cross-Canada festival connection.

Despite this, Caribbean festivals in many provinces remain relatively unknown to the larger general Canadian public. For example, many people do not know that the Caribbean Days festival in Vancouver is the largest cultural event of its kind in B.C. and has been around since 1988. Or that Edmonton has thousands of people frequenting its Cariwest festival, self-described as the “hottest fete in de West,” every summer.

Organizers say because of a lack of nationwide attention, many Canadians do not realize the history of these festivals and how ingrained they are in their respective cities’ cultures. “Our parade in Montreal — just like Toronto’s — goes on for five hours on the road. It was first begun in 1974 by a man named Winston Roberts from St. Vincent,” says Antoine, who is also the president of the World Carnival Commission.

“The Union United church was having its 50th anniversary and they asked him what they could do to celebrate. He put a truck on the road with music, and out of that came the big idea for carnival. There were steel bands, everyone came out from the different islands and it was a big thing. Now we have over 250,000 people coming out every year to celebrate.”

The Montreal festival, says Antoine, is in a process of change this year. They have changed the name. The old moniker, Carifiesta, was used under the Caribbean Cultural Festivities Association. The new, bilingual name, Carifete, came with the creation of the Montreal Carnival Development Foundation.

He says they have been using Toronto’s Caribana as an example of what can happen when you build your infrastructure, receive corporate sponsorship and employ a year-round staff.

“In putting the foundation together we are going to be doing much more than a parade once a year. We want to give scholarships to young people, find a way to teach them, build costumes and teach them the art of Carifete,” says Antoine.

“We are going to be out there, looking for sponsors. Right now we have nothing in terms of infrastructure. We have to set up our own infrastructure and become self-sufficient.”

In Vancouver, the emphasis is very much on multiculturalism and being inclusive to culture, according to Marshall, who is the Chair of the Caribbean Days Festival Committee.

He explains how you’re likely to see groups from the Middle East, China and various islands taking part in the Caribbean Day parade and their festivities. “The whole idea is to show our culture. So what we did in the early days was have arts and crafts, show videos and try in the process to introduce other cultures,” says Marshall. “It’s grown to be one of the biggest multicultural festivals on the B.C. mainland at the moment, but it’s a lot of work. We have so many things to take care of: the finance committee, the venue and approvals, the street parade, the beer gardens, the volunteers and performances.”

Despite their struggles with sponsorship, the long volunteer hours and the hard work it takes to continue, both men agree they see a strong reason for moving forward and promoting Caribbean culture across Canada.

“I was born into a culture. I come from a cultural background. In 1967, I immigrated to Canada and I felt it was important to preserve our cultural heritage while we are away from home and do it in a way that can be representative of the tourism industry in Montreal,” says Antoine. “I will always be involved in celebrating culture. If you don’t have culture, you are lost.”

Name: Carifete (formerly known as Carifiesta)
City: Montreal, Quebec
Known for it’s larger-than-life parade put on by Quebec’s Caribbean community, the festival has grown and adopted groups of Haitian origin and some groups from the Latin community to make it representative of the Montreal community.
Contact: [email protected] or carifiestamontreal.com

Name: Caribbean Days
City: Vancouver, British Columbia
Known for being multicultural and inclusive, the event draws crowds of exuberant fun-lovers to North Vancouver’s Waterfront Park for a weekend of parading, dining and dancing in the sunshine.
Contact: [email protected] or caribbeandays.ca

Name: Cariwest
City: Edmonton, Alberta
Known for being the “hottest fete in de West,” Cariwest is celebrating it’s 25th anniversary this year with a colourful “Costume Extravaganza,” West Indian cuisine and its entertainment-filled Caribbean Village.
Contact: [email protected]

Name: Caribfest
City: Barrie, Ontario
Known for it’s dinner and dance cruises, and diverse range of Caribbean music, this summer Barrie will come alive as the masqueraders dance around the grounds of the Barrie Event Centre.
Contact: [email protected] or caribfest.ca