Caribbean Carnival expands parade route
Posted July 27, 2011 2:08 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Festival organizers for the Scotiabank Toronto Caribbean Carnival have changed the route for Saturday’s parade to allow for a record-number of participants this year to march along Lake Shore Boulevard.
“We have more dancers, participants in the parade than we’ve ever had,” festival spokesperson Stephen Weir told CityNews.ca. “The parade moves so slowly that if we use last year’s parade route, it’s not a given that everyone’s going to get on the parade route.”
The original route for the festival, formerly known as Caribana, started at Exhibition Place and moved west along Lake Shore Boulevard.
Weir said the new route will still begin inside the Exhibition grounds, south of BMO Field where parade participants and floats will then head east towards the Princes’ Gates, then south at the Allstream Centre onto Lake Shore Boulevard West, where the parade by tradition always marches and where they will pass the new judges’ stand.
“We’re spending more time inside the CNE before we get on to the Lake Shore,” he said. “But for people watching, if they have favourite spots, it doesn’t affect it at all.”
The new route has also allowed organizers to add bleachers near the BMO field for about 10, 000 parade-goers who wish to sit down for $15. There will also be a market area with rides and food and merchandise vendors.
“But of course for the million or so people who are there, most won’t be sitting,” he said.
He said the bleachers are aimed at families with young children or people unable to stand.
Some parade-goers have taken to social media websites to post their annoyance with ticket prices but Weir assured that, “There is no admission cost. It is all free.”
Last year, the festival had 5, 000 bleacher seats, he said.
“It’s just this year because the parade route is longer, we have more spaces in which we can put bleachers up.”
