Order of bands announced

This is the list of the bands in order of appearance, so anybody who was waiting, your wait is over, go and register quick, before your section sell out for real.......

1. Toronto Revellers
2. Mas Toronto
3. Saldenah Mas-K Club
4. Tribal Knights
5. Callaloo
6. Carnival Nationz
7. Connections
8. Black Sage
9. Mas Players Int'l
10. Fantazia Int'l
11. Pleasure Players
12. Guycan
13. Tru Dynasty Carnival
14. Genesis Carnival

Metro Police to Play Mas with kids from Jane and Finch

Metro Police to Play Mas with kids from Jane and Finch

Will open Mas Camp for kids

2^nd floor, Yorkgate Mall

Monday May 31^st, 11:00 am

Toronto, ON, 27.05.2010: Senior Officer Superintendent Sam Fernandez from 53 Division will be officially opening the Metro Toronto Police Force’s Mas Camp for Children on Monday May 31^st at the Yorkgate Mall (Finch Avenue East at Jane St). He will be joined by children who are at the camp to learn how to make mas (masquerade) costumes for this summer’s Scotiabank Caribana/Yorkgate Mall Junior Carnival Parade. Brittany Dardaine, a teenage pan artiste will be performing at the event.

In addition to the children and Sam Fernandez members of the Toronto Mas Band Association, including NBA player Jamaal Magloire will be in attendance. Master costume designer Walter Elliott will be demonstrating to the children how to make costumes for the July 17^th parade down Jane Street.

Scheduled to speak briefly at the Festival Management Committee morning event are:

· Superintendent Sam Fernandez

· Walter Elliott, master costume designer

· Denise Hererra-Jackson, co-chair - Scotiabank Caribana

· John Kam, Toronto Mas Band Assocation

· Teenage pannist Brittany Dardaine will perform

The Scotiabank Caribana Festival is an exciting three-week cultural explosion of Caribbean music, cuisine, revelry as well as visual and performing arts. Now in its 43^rd year, it has become a major international event and the largest cultural festival of its kind in North America. As Carnival is an international cultural phenomenon, the great metropolis of Toronto and its environs will come alive as the city explodes with the pulsating rhythms and melodies of Calypso, Soca, Reggae, Chutney, Steel Pan and Brass Bands. The Festival Management Committee oversees the running of North America’s largest outdoor festival.

Corporate sponsors of this year’s festival include: Scotiabank, The Toronto Star, Sway Magazine, Eye Weekly, CTV, CP-24, The Canadian Federal Government, The Province of Ontario, the City of Toronto, Tourism Toronto, Research In Motion (RIM)/BlackBerry, The Greater Toronto AirportsAuthority, Ontario Place, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Ontario Science Centre, The Toronto Libraries, Yorkgate Mall, Liberty Grand, Caribana Arts Group and Grace Kennedy Foods.

This year the Official Launch for the Festival will take place at 12 Noon on Thursday July 15^th. The Scotiabank Caribana/Yorkgate Mall Junior Carnival Parade will be held on Saturday July 17^th from 11am to 4pm. The adult parade will be staged Saturday July 31^st; 10 am to 6 pm. For complete listing information, visit www.caribanafestival.com the only official website for the Festival.

Scotiabank Caribana 2010 Festival Office is located at 263 Davenport Avenue. Lower Level, Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Tel., 416-391-5608; Fax, 416-391-5693; Email: info@caribanafestival.com

GuyCan (Sparkle Guyana) band launch

New band GuyCan (Sparkle Guyana) held their band launch on May 23.
You can check out some photos here on Carib101.

Updates

So May has become the band launch month, whereas in the past it was June. There are still bands (Callaloo, Connections, Guy Can Group, Pleasure Players, Doldron, Doldron & Associates, and DeFrietas Carnival ?) to launch soon or next month though.

To date 1/2 Carnival Nationz sections are sold out, with Big Bamboo being the latest. Obeah Wedding is gone from their site.
Saldenah's Portrait of a Rose and Autumn (XPats) are sold out, and now also India and Indonesia frontlines.
Toronto Revellers Infatuation frontline and men's, and Ebony & Ivory frontline are sold out.
Tribal Knight's has Rodeo Dreams, Indulgence, Show Time, and Champagne on Ice remaining.

The order of the bands hasn't been picked yet. I understand why this is being done, but I really don't like it.

There's been a lot of discussion about themes this Caribana band launch season, with masqueraders either feeling designers did a great job representing it, or not. You can sense the devotion to a certain band or particular designers in many comments, and you can tell who the traditionalists are.

Some themes I may not get immediately, but once I start to imagine possibilities, it begins to change, and then it helps when costumes come alive on stage. But I admit I don't get Halloween as a carnival theme. I keep thinking "this is mas, not Halloween". I know vampires are hot, but do we really want to resort to playing black cats, evil witches, bats, devils, ghosts, and goblins? Don't we do that on October 31st?

I like to see a costume fit the theme, and for designers to boldly go beyond beads & feathers in their mas (Salt Fish, Portrait of Canada, Egypt). I appreciate the use of fabric, soft plastic, & even a bit of fur in a costume, and headpieces need not always be feathered.

And like I said in March, for Caribana, we're talking bikini mas. It used to be traditional style mas back in the day, but since I've been playing (started in 2000), the bike shorts & sports bras have gone the way of the bikini. Whether some bands (I'm thinking Mas Toronto and Toronto Revellers) will take us back to real traditional mas remains to be seen in the years to come. They've already started by reintroducing what most people see as more coverage, but it's really using elements of traditional mas.

Have a great long weekend everyone, we're away this one.

Hamilton is BACK !!!!!!!

Happy days are here again!!!!

I've been hearing rumors for weeks but didn't want to say anything, lest is just ole talk. This is the first thing I've come across in writing, so here it is.

This actually raises more questions than it answers, like:

When is it?, Is it the same day as the new Brampton Carnival? Are they going to switch the dates so we can play mas every weekend for a month (Toronto, Hamilton, Barrie and Brampton)? If anyone is interested, that's my preference.
If anyone knows any of these answers or wants to share more info, please do so.

Anyway, bottom line is Hamilton Carnival is back, ....... Yeah baby!!!!!!

Fantasia International - Fashion Runway band launch

So here are some pics from Fantasia International band launch. Since I didn't go, I'm limited to just going by these pictures. I like the deep shade of purple & how both bras & waistbands are decorated. I'd want a fuller backline headpiece though. The light green & peach colour combo looks good, esp in the headpieces. The mohawk look headpiece is here again, and the orange frontline has a powerful one. I like the light green used, different.
We're also seeing a few Indian costumes this year. I like the skirt, very pretty material, & the golden headpiece. Not sure what's up with the blue corset winged one's headpiece, but I don't know the section names yet.

XPAT'S Section Launch - Portraits of Autumn

Randy Dowden's Photos

XPAT'S (Saldenah) section Portraits of Autumn launch was last night at Meadowvale Community Centre. They've brought out another shiny, bright costume with a big & bold front line backpack. Cool golden cape.

So what do you think?

TruDynasty band launch - Fever what makes you Hot

Dazzled in Diamonds

So Trini-in-Toronto wrote this while eating a bake and shark while I uploaded the pictures and enjoyed some corn soup.

When Trini-in-Toronto heard that a brand new band had booked a venue as large as Embers for their first launch, he thought it was pretty ambitious. But after the launch, we can both see that these guys mean business. The costumes were top notch, you could easily take these designs and place them into any one of our top Toronto bands and they would hold their own.

One of the things that stood out was the variety of options available to masqueraders of all sizes or degrees of modesty. If you want to go as bare as you dare, they will hook you up with a thong and beads which won’t even attempt to disguise your choice. However, in the same section, you can get a corset and some feathers in the back to cover your butt. We think this is going to go over well, the designers have managed to provide some coverage while still keeping it sexy.

More than one person we spoke to commented that this band is gunning to win their class and make their way into Class A in one year. It's not an easy task, but we’ve seen it before, and we think they could have a shot. Another friend & I were puzzled about the quiet crowd, & we wondered about that, if it was because of the 2 hr. delay in starting.

Caliente

Blazin' Fire

Is it Lust or Love

I Love Money

Rays of Sunshine

The headpieces are strong, among the best out there. Some bras and panties are La Vie En Rose, good job. For me, I was drawn to Rays of Sunshine, it's a powerful colour that really stood out. Dazzled in Diamonds headpiece, which is a frontline section only, is simply stunning. I was right about most of my colour guesses, but am kind of surprised there was no red costume, being a fever hot theme.
Great showing Thea & Dario!

Mas Toronto Out of Many...One Toronto band launch

Mexico

No shortage of bright feathers here. Very full pretty headpieces.

GreeceLike the Grecian helmet style headpiece.

Egypt
More well made theme appropriate headpieces.

India

Brazil

JapanStrong impact on stage, powerful purple, & lots of nice details.

Philippines

Multicultural Fantasy

My favourite of the Multicultural Fantasy costumes. Very pretty mauve & silvery grey costume, but I wouldn't go with orange, yellow & blue in the tail feathers & in the headpiece.

Mas Toronto has been in the game for 25+ years. They've always been known as the theme band, and they go beyond bikini mas. They know to not be afraid to design to the theme, so fabric & cloth used in Greece (like a toga), Japan (kimono), Philippines (sarong), India (sari) and Egypt (cape) works well. Four of my costume guesses were correct, and I'm pleased to see Egypt, it's a strong costume.

I applaud Mas Toronto for keeping their costume prices to $150. I'm having a hard time with the price increase to $175 most other bands have gone with. From what people have said to me, I think Mas Toronto is going to gain masqueraders who don't want to pay $25 more for a skimpier costume.

The launch at the Pickering Rec. Ctr. drew a decent size crowd of old and young - just like who their costumes cater to. The crowd was dancing up to the stage at 11:20 before the costumes came on, and they continued after wards.

3 Band Launches this weekend

Another big launch weekend with Friday night, Mas Toronto.
Their presentation is called "Out of many, one Toronto."
Their launches are always a nice time, almost like a social club. Karabana says she thinks we'll see Toronto multiculturalism, such as the top ethnicity's in the city: Asian, East Indian, Italian, Greek, Russian, and Polish.




On Saturday night, Tru Dynasty will be launching "Fever, what makes you hot". They made a pretty big impression with that sneak peak for that nice yellow costume (Rays of sunshine), I can't wait to see the rest of the band. They are launching at Embers and it starts at 11pm.

Karabana's guesses are for section Blazin' Fire, a sexy skimpy red number; soft feminine pink for Is it Lust or Love; Dazzled in Diamonds, sparkly white/silver; I Love Money, green of course; and Caliente, perhaps smokin' black & red.

And also on Saturday night, Fantazia will be presenting "Fashion Runway"

Hmmm, what do you think we'll see? Costumes translated into current Parisian fashion (wonders Karabana)??
We'll have pics up for you on Saturday and Sunday morning.

Saldenah mas camp opening

This is a new location for the band. Seems XPats section isn't part of this registration. See their site for reg details.