Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

  Two Faces For This Year And Next. Lateisha Williams And Celena Suesahai Meet  Lateisha Williams  and  Celena Seusahai , two well-known Toronto Mas Models and longtime Carnival organizers  At an online press conference earlier this week, both women were named the Face of the Toronto Caribbean Carnival Festival –  Ms .  Williams for 2021  and  Ms Seusahai   for 2022 . Lateisha Williams (above and r) For the past eight years the Festival has each year chosen a woman to be the brand ambassador for the annual  Toronto Caribbean Carnival  (some years men have also been chosen to share Face of the Festival duties - but not this time). On Tuesday the Carnival held a press conference online to introduce both this year’s Face of the Festival and next year’s ambassador as well.  Even though the annual summer long weekend Parade has been cancelled for the second year in a row (because of the Covid shutdown), there are still several ...

Celena Seusahai Has Costume And Will Travel By Stephen Weir Celena Seusahai has packed her new costume and headed out the door for her flight to Trinidad and Tobago.  Her trip to T&T’s Carnival is the 2020 start to a Mas on the Move for one of Canada’s leading exporter of the Carnival Arts. She and her father Dexter head up the Tribal Carnival Mas Camp here in the city and on Grand Cayman Island. She is a past Queen of the Toronto Caribbean Carnival and for the past two years has captured the Band of the Year Award at Cayman’s annual carnival.  Oh yes, Tribal also supplies costumes to other carnivals events in the Caribbean and the US, including Miami. “I’m going down by myself and l will be playing Mas with Rogue once again (in Trinidad’s Carnival), they are a branch of Tribe,” she told the Caribbean Camera. “We will have about 30 people in costumes in the T&T Grand Parade. They will be wearing outfits made by my dad and I for T&T’s Carnival Monday...

2019 CARNIVAL KICK-OFF By Stephen Weir The 2019 Toronto Carnival kicked off early early last Saturday morning, or late late Friday night (take your pick) with Tribal Carnival holding the first Toronto band launch of the season. A non-stop parade of stunning looking male and female models strutted across the Grande Luxe ballroom stage to show an enthusiastic audience what people will be wearing on the road August 3rd for the annual Caribbean Carnival Parade. Established in 2007 Tribal is one of the festival’s most successful touring Mas Bands. Tribal has not only competed successfully in Toronto’s annual festival but is also a driving force in the annual Cayman Islands’ spring Batabano Carnival. This past weekend’s costume launch attracted an estimated crowd of 500 revellers who came out to see Tribal’s costumes and sign up to play Mas with Tribal. Band founder Dexter Seusahai stood on stage and opened the show just before midnight with a silent tribute to people who...

Tribal Carnival Has Season's First Costume Launch Friday Night   Dexter and Celena at last year's Tribal costume launch This Afternoon's Caribbean Camera This Morning By Stephen Weir The Big Show starts tomorrow!   The first Toronto Caribbean Carnival's Band Launch begins Friday night when Tribal Carnival, Canada's most successful travelling Mas Bands, takes to the stage at the Grande Luxe Ballroom on Bayview Avenue in North York. Doors open at 9.30 and the show is scheduled to start at 11.30 pm. Mas Bands competiting in this year’s Grand Parade hold late night fetes to introduce the costumes their Mas players will be wearing down the road. This year Tribal’s costume designs are based on the theme of Magic. “Hey Stephen, we will have 80 models on stage at our band launch, with 11 sections,” said Celena Seusahai, the Queen of last year’s parade. “I’ll be wearing the showstopper again and closing the sh...

By Stephen Weir for the Caribbean Camera Jamaica is the new kid on the international Carnival block and this year, thanks to big Canadian visitor numbers, the child has suddenly grown up. Although there have been carnivals in Jamaica since 1989 it has only been in the last three or four years that carnival fans from North America and other Caribbean countries have sat up and taken notice of what is going on in the One Love island nation. The annual festival in Jamaica kicked off in January this year and ended last Sunday with a mas parade of 6,000 costumed revellers through the streets of Kingston.   What made Sunday’s parade different from the past parades was the number of Canadians and other international visitors who were on the road in costume, and in the crowds of spectators that lined the streets of Kingston. Celena Seusahai is one of the driving forces behind the Tribal Carnival mas band in Toronto.   She took time off work to join fellow Canadians taking...