Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Festival goers tell me that after the past weekend Mississauga Celebration Square MUST be renamed Irie Place (we will get on that sir) By Stephen Weir Happy. Exhausted. Full up to here with doubles and roti. Thousands and thousands of people spent two days soaking up the Soca and riding the Reggae wave at Mississauga’s TD Irie Music Festival. And for those that couldn’t get enough of headliner Farmer Nappy there was a perfect weather Sunday cruise aboard the Yankee Lady 111 out on Lake Ontario. The music was free.   The parking was free.   About the only thing you had to pay for was the sunscreen, the food and drink. People of all ages, filled the Celebration Square, next door to the Square One supermall in Mississauga.   Phil Vassell’s TD Irie Music Festival has grown into a keystone event for Mississauga’s summer.   How much did people love this weekend’s festival?   The Caribbean Camera received a letter demanding that the ...

Not the way Fitzroy Gordon would want it to Groove   By Stephen Weir The first time a grieving Marvette Gordon knew there was serious trouble at her late husband’s radio station was when a letter appeared in her mailbox a few weeks ago. She learned that the Ontario Supreme Court of Justice had placed G98.7 FM under investigative receivership and a Toronto law firm was temporarily running the ship. The late Fitzroy Gordon’s FM station is now under attack. A former shareholder has convinced the Provincial Courts that there are serious financial problems at the only Caribbean Canadian owned radio station. The law firm Farber and Associates is, for now, managing the affairs of the FM station and examining closely its books. The Insolvency Insider news-site first reported that Gordon’s Intercity Broadcasting Network, the company that operates radio station G98.7 “was placed in investigative receivership on June 3 on application by Jamrock Broadcasting and Delford Blythe.” A...

Phillip Vassell Signs Farmer Nappy In Mississauga this weekend, everyting is Irie By Stephen Weir   It is a new Mississauga tradition. Reggae on Friday. Soca on Saturday.    And a last lap Boat Cruise on Sunday to cap off an Irie weekend. The music is free.  The parking is free. People of all ages, yes including families, are welcome at this weekend’s TD IRIE Music Festival (June 21 to June 22), 2018.  It takes place at Celebration Square, next door to the Square One super-mall in Mississauga and then wraps up on Lake Ontario on the Yankee Clipper June 23 rd . “We started this festival a long-time ago in Toronto in a variety of locations from Queens Park to eventually Nathan Phillip Square,” explained Festival founder Phillip Vassell. . “ We had to leave for the Pan Am Games and when that was over we came back to find out the cost of being at City Hall had risen like a rocket!   We moved and took a chance on being in the...

Sponsor-less but Happy.  The Toronto Caribbean Carnival Rolls out a summer of fun, fancy and jammin' By Stephen Weir Lewis and Davis - photo by Anthony Berot OK break out the roti, fire up the air horn, put on the beads and glitter, it is Carnival time in Toronto.  Yesterday the organizer of the annual Toronto Caribbean Carnival held a loud fun kick-off to their 52nd year with a press conference at the lakeside Boulevard Yacht Club. While Mas models paraded in costume and steel pan players performed, 30 or so Toronto media came into the club’s ballroom to hear what is new and different about the summer festival that begins in just 42 days.   In 2019 the festival runs from July 9th to August 3rd. E pic Carnival's Sheyenne Persood was a model at the presser - sweirsweir Facing the media were six speakers sitting at a long table, ready to talk about all aspects of the festival.   So what was said? The message from the experts was right to the ...

Joel and the Chutney Soca Monarch coming to Toronto By Stephen Weir Joel Davis at Harbourfront  There will be a Soca Monarch contest held during Toronto’s Caribana weekend, and this year it comes with a healthy dose of T&T Chutney! Shortly after it was learned that there would not be a Toronto Caribbean Calypso Monarch contest this year because of a lack of contestants, a Trinidad based company announced it is working with Canadian publisher / promoter Amit Gossai, to bring the Chutney Soca Monarch (CSM) to Toronto. Chutney Soca deal signed “The Chutney Soca competition in Trinidad gets 5,000 to 10,000 spectators. This is our first year in Canada and I am hopeful that we will get 4,000 to 5,000 through the door,” Mr. Gossai told Carib 101.   “ We are in the process of nailing down a location – once the deal has been signed, I can’t say where it will be, but, I will tell you it will be held in Woodbridge, 3pm to 9pm on August 4th. “   “ Sout...

--> Marcie Brown’s play Deception is funny – and that is the truth! By Stephen Weir No lie (I don’t think). Marcie Brown’s new play, Deception has left the city of Brampton in stitches. It wasn’t just the down-home Caribbean humour, it was the twists and turns of a Jamaican Canadian story that could be true, or is it that the well-known playwright and actress is just messing with us?   “What we saw in Brampton and which audiences are going to see this weekend in Toronto (and the weekend after that in Scarborough and Ajax) is a play that will make them laugh, make them feel the raw emotion and also think about the underlying truths in the storyline. Deception is the real package!” Marcie Brown told the Caribbean Camera.  Familiar faces on stage in Brampton include Brown herself who plays Imogene , Naggo Morris who plays Bredda and Adrea Smith as Madge . As is her passion, Brown introduces the audience to new talent including Grace McDonald ( Dotlyn ...