North America’s largest street festival turned 40 this year. Over 1 million revelers from Canada, the USA and the Caribbean jammed into Toronto’s lakefront for the annual Caribana parade.
(click pictures to enlarge)
The vibe was positive and festive as always, with people of all sizes, shapes and cultures jumping up to the Soca sounds pulsing from speaker-laden floats. The skimpy outfits provided eye candy to both sexes, though every body type and body age was wining to the beats.
2007 must not have been a great year for music at the master Trinidad Carnival, as a good % of the music played on the floats were featured on the 2006 playlist. Regardless, the crowd enthusiastically jumped up to aging classics like Destra Garcia’s “Max it Up†and Russell Cadogan’s “Big Bottom Galâ€.
The only negative –and it will always be a problem- was the traffic. Attempting to catch a streetcar on Queen or Bathurst street was a fruitless exercise – our group managed to walk east along Queen Street from Bathurst to University without seeing a single street car. Driving in the periphery of the CNE was vehicular suicide but didn’t stop thousands of drivers from slinking around at 10km/h, fruitlessly honking the horn at passing revelers.
Since half the Caribana-related Google searches that reach this site concern crime and violence, let me tell you that I didn’t see any at all. The police were standing around -mostly at ease- giving directions more often than tickets.
As usual, security was good but not flawless, allowing a handful of aggressive onlookers to breach the security fence and get some up-close pictures (*ahem*). Enjoy these photos (shot by someone in my entourage) and keep checking the site for the upcoming YouTube video.
Also See: Caribana 2007 - The Video
I don’t believe so, at least not mainstream activities.
Bathurst to University is pretty good. i recently walked from Church to Augusta without one going my way, and this wasn’t during any festival.