Toronto Caribbean Carnival returns to city for first time since pandemic

Colourful, feathered costumes and booming Soca music filled Toronto’s Exhibition Place and Lake Shore Boulevard Saturday as festivalgoers celebrated the return of the Caribbean Carnival’s grand parade.

The Caribbean parade, meant to celebrate freedom and emancipation from slavery, is back for its 55th anniversary after the COVID-19 pandemic forced cancellations in 2020 and 2021.

The festival is also a large tourist attraction for Toronto, with many attendees travelling to the city from across North America to celebrate the festival’s return.

“It’s been great meeting all the people from out of town, I just met someone from Las Vegas who said he flew here just for this,” chair and festival management committee, Laverne Garcia, tells CityNews, “I was humbled I thought it was amazing are we’re so happy to welcome everyone back.”

“I’m so excited to be here! It’s my first time in Toronto,” said parade participant, Antoinette Moore.

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Moore is one of thousands taking part to make the show possible. She’s here from Philadelphia and says lots of work went into preparing for the day — Moore said she got up just before 4:30 a.m. to put together their costume, which took an hour.

Alexander Harold, who is Nigerian, said he travelled to the city from Buffalo, N.Y. because he grew up hearing about the strong Caribbean culture in Toronto.

“I wanted to get over here and experience the festival,” said the 28-year-old. “It’s so dope to see so many different cultures and everybody be so happy and expressive.”

Float designer Danzo Balroop finally gets to assemble his creation for all to see. This one he says represents the Aztec feathered-serpent god. It’s made up of ten large pieces, with countless others needed to complete the picture.

“It’s representing prosperity and unity… and war and peace,” Balroop said.

Bands will also be appearing before a panel of judges who will look for some very specific things.

Head judge Marlene Price Jones said they’re looking for how participants used colour, texture, movement and form to create a story.

Crowds stretched for kilometres along the parade route, with celebrants setting up lawn chairs and enjoying food from vendors, waiting to catch a glimpse of the glittering costumes and parade floats.

Toronto Mayor John Tory and federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh were among those who marched in this year’s parade.

Organizers said they expected around one million spectators to show up.