Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

2024 King and Queen and Panorama leaving Lamport Stadium? There it goes! Or is the Caribbean Camera reading this correctly? Is the annual Toronto Caribbean Carnival King and Queen competition a goner after over twenty years at the Lamport Stadium? Earlier this week, the Festival Management Committee sent out an update on what is planned for this summer’s carnival. A copy landed on the desk of the Toronto Caribbean Carnival, implying that the premier evening event of the Carnival, the King and Queen competition at the King Street stadium, might not be held there this year; instead, it will be incorporated into the daytime parade. The King and Queen competition has been selling out the Lamport Stadium since the last century. Politicians, entertainers, VIPs — this has always been the hardest ticket to get during Festival week. “The King and Queen show has traditionally kicked off the Toronto Caribbean Carnival weekend every year since the beginning. The leaders of Caribana Mas Bands will ...

--> Cover for Kid's Parade book by Don Moreland  The Faces Of This Year's Festivals By Stephen Weir For the past two-weeks photographer Don Moreland has been pouring over the thousands of photographs that he and his team of photographers took at this year’s Toronto Caribbean Carnival Grand Parade, the Children’s Parade and the King and Queen Competition.   By this weekend his first copies of his coffee table photography books about the just completed carnival will begin to roll off the presses. “I am quite proud of our parade photographs. There were three of us taking pictures for the book. We spread ourselves around the route and got every section in each of the eleven bands that took part in the parade,” Don Moreland told the Camera. “If you went down the road this year, your photograph is in all likelihood in our Grand Parade photography book.   The same holds true for the Kiddies Parade and the King and Queen Show.” King and Queen Book Co...

.  The Award for Innovation in Mas Goes to ‘The Hyper-Physical Being’   Hyper-Physical Being - photo by Anthony Berot   Toronto, ON (August 2, 3013) – With its ambiguous coils unraveling outwards and colourful wings reaching upwards, “The Hyper-Physical Being” is the winner of the Ontario Science Centre’s Award for Innovation in Mas presented last night at the King and Queen Competition at Lamport stadium. The spectacular creation was designed and built by Danzo Balroop and the team at Louis Saldenah’s Mas-K Club. The judging panel was made up of Walter Stoddard and Bernie Hillar of the Ontario Science Centre’s Science Content and Design B ranch, and Dr. Marsha Haynes, Medical Liaison for Merck Canada, who participated in many carnivals in her native Trinidad. “Tremendous research, problem-solving, experimentation and collaboration were clearly displayed at every camp we visited in the days leading up to the competition,” said Walter S...