‘WE’RE ALL FROM ONE ISLAND TODAY’
Elaborate costumes light up waterfront at Caribbean Carnival’s grand parade
Magnificently adorned revellers by the thousands shimmy and shake at the Exhibition grounds on Saturday.
There were sequins. There were feathers. There were sparkles on every available square inch of skin.
There were choreographed and spontaneous dance parties, tunes blasting from speakers piled high and intricate costumes fashioned to look like birds, fish, snowflakes and even jelly fish.
And, inevitably, there was the occasional hitch. As her mas club assembled in the staging area at the 48th-annual Scotiabank Caribbean Carnival Saturday, Joanne Trotman — dressed in gold from glittering headdress to shiny-booted toe — was giving her gigantic costume a final once-over.
She’d spent three weeks building “Going for Gold,” a 90-kilogram apparatus on wheels adorned with gold stars and shiny CDs — just one of dozens of elaborate costumes, some so tall they were catching on street lights.
Now, she was realizing a piece was missing from the back.
“There was just so much going on,” Trotman said, before giving a goodnatured shrug and dancing off with her mas crew, her shimmering costume looking flawless.
The grand parade, the marquee event of the Caribbean festival, once again drew hordes of masqueraders, revellers and spectators to the Exhibition grounds and along Lake Shore Blvd. on a sunny summer day, making for a huge outdoor party.
Kicking off the event, Mayor John Tory said the parade was “another indication to the rest of the world of how we live together in this city.” He then challenged National Defence and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney to a mercifully short “dance-off ” competition, where there was no clear winner.
Among those shimmying and shaking along the parade loop were Talia Chotoo and Vashti Singh, part of the Louis Saldenah Mas-K club. Chotoo, performing in her fourth carnival, spent more than an hour getting her costume ready before the parade, including carefully affixing tiny blue jewels on her cheeks.
“I love the experience, and I love how everybody here is like friends,” she said.
For Aneal Nehru, the parade is a taste of home. Before moving to Canada in 2003, the native Trinidadian attended his country’s massive and elaborate carnivals.
Toronto’s is smaller, he said, but the positive energy and excitement is the same. “We never miss it,” Nehru said, who participates in the parade with his wife, Carol. “We put aside $5 or $10 a week to save for our costumes.”
“I love the togetherness. We’re basically all from one island today,” added Angelique Nurse.
Scouting the perfect parade-watching spot near Medieval Times were mother and daughter Franca and Mary Romualdi. Franca used to watch the parade decades ago when it snaked down University Ave., said Mary: “she lives to see the costumes."
The event did experience some violence, however. One man was hospitalized following a stabbing at about 7 p.m. Saturday on the CNE grounds.