By Roger Gibbs

What is the meaning of the Toronto Caribbean Carnival? How does one make sense of the massive, day-long celebration which takes place on Toronto’s Lakeshore Boulevard on the first Saturday of every August. There are many ways to answer these basic questions: One, the carnival is the Canadian Caribbean community’s cultural gift to Canada on its Bicentennial. This has some symbolic historic meaning, but it does not advance our understanding.  Two, the carnival is a celebratory commemoration of one of the greatest human rights achievements of mankind – the abolition of slavery. This is a powerful statement and portrays the carnival celebration as a moral voice in society’s ongoing struggle against racism and classism. Three, the carnival is an indigenous Caribbean form of community/professional open-air theatre, a proven model of making a theatrical spectacle in the most inclusive way imaginable.

The more business minded prefer to view the carnival as an economic engine which generates substantial tax income and add that it is a massive costumed, outdoors party whose brand brings high publicity and multicultural value to Toronto and to Canada. Indeed, the Toronto Caribbean Carnival is often used as Canada’s poster child for multiculturalism internationally.

I ask these questions because it is around this time of year that businesses and various for-profit and non-profit enterprises, regardless of their nature, undergo some sort of strategic planning process to determine what ideas and aims will guide their operations in the coming year or years. Financial, administrative and logistical plans must be crafted to support the intended goals of the organization. The best of plans must be able to navigate unpredictable circumstances that may arise and overcome them.

In the case of the Toronto Caribbean Carnival, there are serious unpredictable outcomes, such as the level and timing of government funding; the success of partnerships with major commercial sponsors; inclement weather which can have a huge impact on ticket sales; and the often-fractious internal politics of the Caribbean Carnival Arts community.

All these challenging circumstances have been met and overcome in the past, sometimes at enormous cost to the organizers of the festival and its clients. The stress on the community of operating a festival that is always on the verge of financial insolvency can be intolerable and many have come and gone, walked away in despair, disgust and disappointment. Nevertheless, the festival endures after fifty-seven years.

I do not profess to have the answers to the problems which face the Toronto Caribbean Carnival.  I have been involved with the festival since the early 1900s – as an artist/performer, a producer, a senior administrator, a director, and an observer. I have enormous respect and love for the community of which I have been honoured to be a part of. I will say one thing about the festival: if it is to remain relevant and if the Festival Management Committee is to fulfil its role as leaders of a major cultural organization it must continue to develop and articulate compelling arguments beyond the festival’s economic impact.  It must develop the huge creative and artistic potential of the carnival. That means having a deep understanding of the Caribbean carnival traditions and the ability to reinterpret them in the Canadian context. In Toronto, Canada’s largest city, there are a range of highly skilled cultural workers and resources available which do not exist in the Caribbean.   The Festival Management Committee’s vision of the Toronto Caribbean Carnival is not well known, if at all. The emphasis on the festival’s economic impact is well known. What is not well known is the festival’s artistic vision. The arts – music, dance, theatre, visual arts, culinary arts – are what imbue the festival with its public appeal. Without a clear artistic vision and the teams of people to implement that vision, the festival will continue to drift along and never achieve its full potential.