This Weekends Launches: Black Sage, TruDynasty, Fantazia International and Callaloo

Thea told me the sections are:

Heavenly

Bliss

Paradise

Adam & Eve

Envy

S&M

Lucifer

Really looking forward to a weekend jam packed with costumes, costumes, & more COSTUMES!!!!

The Ganges Meets the Nile - Callaloo

We unfortunately couldn't make it to Callaloo's band launch on Saturday, as we were tied up at the Revellers launch. About that, I wonder why there are no bands launching this upcoming weekend, but last weekend & on the 23rd, there are several? I'm not sure why next weekend is dead, I think most people don't go away for the Victoria Day long weekend.
Anyway.
Here's a look at some of their costumes for their theme The Ganges Meets the Nile, which had a lot of design potential.

The above gold costume is the one I like, especially the huge white cat headpiece. I'd like it better with a bikini bottom instead of boy shorts though. Speaking of that, where some bands have gone the skimpy route, Callaloo is the band with coverage. I like the below colour mix of purple & blue, particularly in the headpiece. As often is the case with this band, they've produced some strong headpieces and mens' costumes this year.

Callaloo is offerering their costumes for $99 again as an early bird special when you email them or if you joined their facebook group before the launch.

Bacchanal in Barrie?

~Caribana 40th anniversary~

This was an especially fun Caribana for us as our two carnival friends joined us on the road. It's always sensational having people play mas with us for the first time... it's never their last!

It was also a memorable Caribana with the newest It band, Toronto Revellers, who I suspected would dethrone Carnival Nationz, winning large Band of the Year, leaving CN in 3rd place. Saldenah, who held the title 15 times, took second place. Errol Achue's Mas Toronto placed 4th, and Marlon Singh's Callaloo placed 5th.
Newcomer Dexter Seusahai's Tribal Knights, the band I said to watch, did in fact take the small Band of the Year.

The usual complaint from some of the 1.5 million spectators was that there was a long wait between the bands. With 25,000 masqueraders and 3 bands not making it to the parade route, it's no surprise. This appears to be an issue every year, something hopefully that will be improved upon.

If you can't get enough carnival, up next is Caribfest, Barrie's first Caribbean styled Carnival this Saturday, September 1. This all day carnival will be held at the Barrie Event Centre starting at 10 a.m. It will feature Caribana costumes, a parade and a dance on the grounds of the Event Center. Reggae, soca, steel pan, chutney and tassa bands will be performing.

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I want to thank all my Caribana friends and bloggers who gave this blog over 3000 hits! This blog will be on hiatus until Caribana 2008, so until then, it's back to MocaGyrl.

Caribana Official launch

Caribana Festival 2007 has officially launched downtown at Nathan Phillips Square on Tuesday. Politicians, sponsors and representatives attended the event, but the crowd was really there to check out the costumes.

Mas bands that participated were Bazodee Connection, Callaloo, Jessie Matthews, Toronto Caribbean Connection, Toronto Revellers, Scarborough Caribbean Sports Club, Mas Toronto, and Tribal Knights. Hummingbird Tassa Drummers and the Munthadi International Drummers were among the performers. Good to see Mervyn, Bootsman & Courtnay!
I'm very impressed with new band Tribal Knights extremely well designed vibrant costumes (first two pictures below) http://www.tribalknights.com/

Callaloo costume sale

- The Caribbean Camera

Callaloo is having a costume sale, selling three sections costumes tomorrow at reduced prices.

League of Corinth, not pictured in the ad.

Crusader of the Crodosion Desert

Gems of India

It's rather surprising these well made pretty sections are not selling as well as the others, I would have thought they would have been among the first to sell-out. To reduce their price is an interesting tactic, I will be curious to hear how their sale goes.

http://callaloo.net/

Big Welcome to my Guest Blogger, Trini-in-Toronto (Hubby) who because I'm quite busy with my practicum, will be blogging about the first big Caribana band launch, Callaloo!
(Have to explain the first two pics below. They were playing a Trini Carnival video, featuring a lot of Tribe, real nice to see, & lo & behold, who do we see but Kevian in Jab Jab! Then the screen froze for at least 1 minute, so we clicked a shot. Funny too, bceause we were thinking of you Kevian, so nice to see ya!)


Alright, Karabana has granted me this small space to say a few words about our experience at Callaloos' band launch. Well, it never seems to be a colder night than when you are lining up outside a club waiting for security to let you inside. The wait wasn't overly long, but it was pretty windy.
I must send out a big thank you to Courtney for his assistance and information regarding the band launch.

So the lime was Me, Karabana and Buublenut. We met at our house for drinks and then went over to Sin City. Its my first time at this club and it won't be the last, as we are hitting Soca or Die next week and we will try to hit Saldenah's launch also. (if we can't reach the lauch we will visit the mas camp to get some pics for the people ) This place must be under new management, since I hadn't really heard of West Indian promoters using them so much in the past. Speaking of Soca or die, we have a couple extra tickets if anyone needs them, you could drop us a line.

On to the launch...




You all have to forgive me, I am new to this roving reporter business, and nobody walked with a notepad, so we don't know the sections names, but we took plenty pictures and if you all see something you think you will look sexy in, you can go to http://callaloo.net/ and get all the info I'm sure it will be updated soon.
This is Callaloo's 10th anniversary, & I remember when they first went out on their own. Now, the impression that I first got from them, was that they had costumes that were designed by women for women. They were one of the first bands to provide good fitting, attractive bras for their masqueraders. I remember they came out with those strapless bras with the see through plastic straps.
Now this doesn't sound like a big deal now, because everyone is doing it now, but when they started, alot of the other bands in Toronto were still providing these flimsy imitation sport bras that were pretty crappy. This is what I know about Callaloo... you can go to their site for the rest of the story....

I like this green costume, I never play in green before and I find this color looks nice in the hot sun

Ok, Please don't make fun of my cloudy shots, we accepting donations if you want to give us a better camera to use. This is burgandy and it looks really nice, but the shot didn't really do it justice. Plenty plumes for the front line HOs.

You can't really make out the headpeice in this shot, due to the contrast, but it look good in person
check out the boots this costume is really taking after Imp!
See, we have intricate beadwork and ting, right here in T.O.

You say you liked the previous one, but you need some more feathers...
Here is one of the only two male costumes modeled. I'm sure there are male costumes available in every section, but really, carnival is about woman ....ENT?

I like the pink AND BLACK .... VERY VEGAS SHOW GIRL LIKE.


I've also never played in a primarily purple costume. I wouldn't mind trying that


They have here various options to choose to fit every body type



OK folks, thats the end of our pictures. I'm not really into fashion and can't come up with insightful comments on costume design, I'll leave this to the experts. I find the costumes looked attractive, and the most important thing is to enjoy yourself.... I mean to really enjoy yourself at Caribana, you need to get yourself a costume and play mas.
My job is not to tell you who to play with, but just to enourage you to come out and play.
Now, lanuches and fetes are going to be coming fast and furious from here on in, so, we will try and hit as many mas camps as we can and share info on all the other caribana events that will be coming up.
So go to a band launch, jump up in a fete, check out a pan yard, take in the culture and enjoy our festival.
Allyuh please leave some comments, otherwize Karabana won't let me write anything again. And if you all (especially the visitors) have any questions, please ask and I will do my best to help you out.
Until next time
Laters
Trini-in-Toronto