Fog up the place, don’t clog up the place

If you are accustomed to hoping the fence and storming a band, things are going to be a lot more difficult for you this year. There are going to be more fences and lots more security who will actually be opening the fences and escorting you off the route if you manage to get in.

There is still time to join a band, volunteer or at the very least go and buy a steelband jersey, get a wrist band and go and push pan. All these are viable options, but storming is going to get more and more difficult.

For the people who have bought their costume, you might be thinking to yourself, my band is going down the road about 11:30am and we might reach the end of the route around 1 pm. What do I do now? 

Well, the FMC has you covered, you can get off the route, walk back to the CNE, and take in a live performance by none other than Destra Garcia. She is coming on about 2pm in the band shell. And they have listed other performers also.

The organizers are trying to encourage you not to walk back up the route as they say this contributes to congestion. They will be putting security in place to prevent this.

You might say that you paid $200+ and you will walk where you damn well please. There are only a few thousand masqueraders and many, many more stormers, so they should deal with the guys not wearing a costume who shouldn't be in the parade and leave me alone.

That is a valid point, and the organizers are making every effort to keep non-masqueraders off the route, but they are also asking for your co-operation. If you want to leave the route, head back to CNE, take in Destra, then take a jump back down with a panside or some other band (if they will have you, you might have to take a wine on a band security to hop the rope :).  I don’t see the harm in that, but they are asking don’t walk backwards up the route.  Besides, you don’t want anyone to ruffle your feathers as you try to swim upstream against the flow of the bands.

So, get a wristband or wine to the side. Fog up the place, don’t clog up the place.

Trini-in-Toronto