Carnival Spirit Fills Toronto’s Waterfront

By Stephen Weir

Before the Grand Parade stepped off on Saturday morning, the Toronto Caribbean Carnival officially welcomed thousands of masqueraders and spectators to Exhibition Place. Ontario Premier Doug Ford joined festival organizers, elected officials, including the Toronto mayor, and community leaders at the opening ceremony, praising the Carnival as one of Ontario’s premier cultural celebrations and an important driver of tourism and the economy.

The Premier, smiling broadly during the ceremony, congratulated the volunteers, bandleaders, performers and organizers whose efforts have helped make the festival one of the largest Caribbean celebrations in North America.

The official welcome set the tone for a day of colourful costumes, pulsating soca and calypso music, and a celebration of Caribbean culture that stretched along Lake Shore Boulevard as the Grand Parade got underway.

The Toronto Caribbean Carnival ran from July 30 through the Civic Holiday weekend, with the Grand Parade remaining the festival’s signature event.

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