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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

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

It is Costume Launch Season GO BIG AND GO HOME WITH BIG COSTUME By Stephen Weir for Caribbean Camera For the next six weeks, followers of carnival in Toronto are going to be staying up late, hear ear blasting new road songs and getting dazzled by the latest masquerade fashion statements. The Mas Camp Costume Launch season begins this Saturday night when Venom Mas unveils all the costumes that their camp members will be wearing on the street this summer for the 51st Toronto Caribbean Carnival parade. The Canadian Mas camps design and build themed costumes that will be worn in the parade here in Toronto and at carnivals around the world. The costume launches give people the first chance to see and buy costumes. This year the Mas camps are saying that Toronto’s interest in the 2018 launches is “intense” and “almost boiling over” - more people want to participate in the Toronto parade than ever before.” “ I think it is an issue of safety – Toronto’s parade continues to