Tribal Carnival is going big
-->
 |
DEXTER
ON STAGE WITH HIS DAUGHTER CELENA SEUSHAHAI AND MC SHELDON FRANCIS (SKF)
Saturday night's main event for fans of Carnival
By Stephen Weir for the Caribbean Camera
Sunday morning at the Grand Deluxe Ballroom in North Toronto and sunrise only three hours away. It was very late even for a Mas Band costume launch, when Tribal Carnival founder Dexter Seusahai and daughter Celena Seusahai wearing the show stopping costume lowered the music and told the wildly clapping fans where their family run band is heading.
"We have been up. We have been down. Now the sky is the limit!" yelled Dexter Seusahai. He told the 500+ strong audience that Tribal Carnival will compete for the first time in three years in the large band class (1,000+) for this year's August 4th Toronto Caribbean Carnival (Caribana) Parade, 2018.
Established
in 2007 Tribal has emerged as one of the festival’s most successful
Mas Bands. Tribal has not only competed successfully in Toronto’s annual
festival but is also a driving force in the annual Cayman Islands’ May 5th
Batabano Carnival
This past
weekend’s costume launch was the third this spring. Tribal’s fete followed the
trend set by the first two launches -- EPIC Carnival, and Venom Mas. Large excited crowds, inventive costumes, Intriguing
themes and unfortunately, very late starts.
Tribal
Carnival’s costume show got underway after 1am on Sunday and ended two hours later. It was a high
energy show, starring some 80 beautiful well rehearsed models and energetic outgoing male performers.
The section names say it all. From Mad Tea, to Jabberwocky and The White Witch,
the nine sections took their name and inspiration from
the
Lewis Carroll book, Alice in Wonderland. Celena Seusahai, the driving force for
the weekend costume launch wore the “show-stopper” costume based on the theme
of Through the Looking Galls.
Despite the
tardiness of the show start, Tribal Carnival put on a slick well paced show.
Two reasons for this. Tribal Carnival is
very much a Mom and Pop and daughter operation.
Dexter, Gail Chelsea and Celena Seusahai do the heavy lifting by
handling marketing, costume design, logistics, section leaders and even model
costumes. As well, this is the second launch of the year for Tribal – so they have
had practice. They had a hugely successful costume launch in the Caymans early
this year.
The response to the launch was almost instantaneous
– Tribal was inundated with costume requests from wanna be revellers.
“ Our Mas camp address is 3401 McNicoll Ave
Unit 8. It is set to open April 12th and
we will be open from 2pm to 9pm,” said Celena seusahai “We are currently
planning an event at North York nightclub but that fete is not set in stone yet. We will be
heading to Cayman in two weeks to distribute costumes and get ready for the
parade!
-->
Comments