Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This By Stephen Weir The stars glittering above were most certainly aligned.  There will never be a Caribana King and Queen Competition as good as what happened last Thursday night at Lamport Stadium. What do we mean? In point form here’s why it was an event for the carnival history books. Clear warm skies. No wind. A stadium filled to capacity with hard-core fans of the carnival arts. Drama. Pageantry. And, two big surprises at the podium. According to Weather Canada, when the gates opened at the downtown soccer stadium, it was a sunny cloudless 25 degrees Celsius. When the contest ended just before midnight it was 20 degrees Celsius – just the right temperature to cool down an estimated audience of 10,000 as they streamed out of Lamport. Most of the crowd left the open-air stadium long before the winning announcements were made. Those that did stay greeted the names of the new King and Queen with loud gasps and then applause. Judges  d

THE KIDDIES PARADE - ANOTHER BIG WIN FOR THIS YEAR'S TORONTO'S CARIBBEAN FESTIVAL --> By Stephen Weir  You could tell that everyone was pumped to cheer on the children.   A city ambulance stuck a Trinidadian flag on its hood. A Caribbean man donned a banana costumes and walked the parade route handing out bananas to the junior revellers.   Local politicians waved and cheered and parents cried for joy when they saw their kids play mas on Neilson Road in Malvern! If you can ignore the punishingly hot sunshine and the lack of a cooling wind, Saturday’s Junior Carnival Parade and Family Day. There were over 2,000 little masqueraders wearing costumes belonging to nine competing bands. An estimated 8,000 people lined the parade route and sat in the stands to wildly clap and cheer at one of Canada’s biggest children’s costume parade. On Saturday morning Mayor John Tory and Deputy Mayor, Michael Thompson, along with other councillors and MPPs cut a ribbon to

The Grand Old Grande Parade.  Best hang on to your feathers. Sure the parade is in its 52nd year and it is very much the same old same old. However, there are additions and changes to the grand old Grand Parade that spectators should be aware of to get the most out of the August 3rd  world famous road march. First of all the parade is bigger, noisier and longer than last year – the route is 8km in length almost twice the distance in2018.  The parade is larger and will take much longer to play out along Lakeshore Blvd and in the Exhibition Place grounds. Third, the pan orchestras are back in the parade and will certainly make themselves heard above the roar of the crowd. Chris Alexander the head honcho at the carnival office spoke to the Caribbean Camera about the changes and upgrades to the Saturday parade. The bands, beginning at 9.30 am will present themselves in this order: guest bands, competitive bands and then non-competitive bands. Steel bands will round ou

Toronto can toot their horns with Etienne Charles this August 3rd By Stephen Weir World travelling Trinidadian jazzman Etienne Charles is going to put the dingolay into this year’s Toronto Caribbean Carnival. Earlier this week the trumpeter called the paper from Spain to say that he was going to lead a guest Mas Band in the Carnival’s grand parade and hopes that revellers will jump up and join his band. “ No big surprise, I am calling the band Etienne Charles Brass Band!” he told Stephen Weir. “The band is about reviving the tradition of live brass bands on the road for Carnival. A tradition we have revived in Trinidad with our past three bands, We The People, Street Party and D’Longtime Band” Etienne Charles has an uncle and aunt living in the GTA and last fall played to a nearly sold-out concert at the North Toronto Sony Centre.   He has a strong fan base in the province and is looking forward to those fans jumping up with him at the parade. He will be coming