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Two Different Approaches For The Saturday night Battle of the Bands By Stephen Weir  Photographs by Stephen Weir  Jully Black from reggae singer to Soca sailor Two Mas Men went head-to-head on Saturday night and both came out winners, each in their own way.   A pair of Caribbean Carnival Band launches were held on the same night – one in North Toronto and the other in Malvern.    The two band leaders   - Raptor celeb Jamaal Magloire (Toronto Revellers) and Will Morton (Fantazia) took two different approaches to showing off the costumes that their bands will be wearing on the road this summer. In the business of Mas, the winners and losers of a Battle of the Bands, is ultimately not determined by the number of people that attended (in which case Jamaal won hands down) but rather by the number of costume buyers who decide to sign on the bottom line as a result of the fashion show.   The Revellers won at the gate, and Fantazia had the most social media cameras beamin

--> City already looking forward to 2019 By Stephen Weir  Photos by Craigg Slowly While Torontonians have already put away their costumes for another year, in Niagara Falls, last weekend close to 10,000 tourists and locals alike had some Caribana schooling. This is the third year that the Niagara Caribbean Festival has been held in Niagara Falls.   Some of Toronto’s top Mas Models joined the musical group Kobo Town, Connector, the P.K. Hummingbird Steel Orchestra and a fleet of food trucks to hold a carnival pop-up in the Queen Victoria Park directly opposite the American and Canadian Horseshoe Falls . This is the third year that the Caribbean Community Engagement group –   in partnership with the Niagara Parks Commission – has held the   Caribana inspired festival. The CEE is headed up by Yvette Martin, a longtime Ontario stage manager for theatre, festivals (including Caribana) and concerts across the country. “Tourists from around the world came ov

Photography's Godfather of Costume Launches Don Moreland lives to take Mas pictures By Stephen Weir Caribbean Carnival There are two written-in-stone constants at  all  Toronto Mas Band costume launches.    Law number 1? The costume designs will always radically change from one season to the next. Law number 2? Photographer Don Moreland will be at every launch photographing the models in their costumes and recording the elaborate fashion shows.  “ WOW the people who put on these shows are amazing!” Moreland told the Caribbean Camera. “ My first carnival was in 1987 and I started taking pictures of the launches back in 1997. Since then I have taken over 60,000 photos and have over 300 hour of video tape in my studio warehouse (In Toronto’s Junction District)”. “I am the owner of  Ontario Portable Display Systems,” he continued. “We set up displays at trade shows, galleries and private functions in Canada and the United States.    I am 58 and I have had a camera in

Cosmic Fusion takes a bow - photo by Stephen Weir Jamaal Magloire and the Revellers holding part two of their costume l aunch this Sunday By Stephen Weir for the Caribbean Camer a The show is over ... for now. Early early this past Sunday morning the doors closed at the York Mills Gallery banquet hall where over 600 people had taken in the long anticipated Toronto Revellers Band Costume Launch, Part One. Unfortunately it was an unexpected shortened show with only six of their ten sections performing. The remaining four sections are expected to be presented – in part or in whole -- this Sunday evening in Scarborough at the opening of the Revellers’ mas camp. At the York Mills Gallery launch band leader Jamaal Magloire introduced this year's carnival costumes, all inspired by the theme Extinction: Love Our Planet. Helping the NBA star out on stage was Miami carnival personality D'Wassi One and Trinidad champion mas designer and singer Ronnie Mc Into