Achi news desk-
For some people attending a press conference at the Montreal Jamaica Society Friday, this summer’s Caribbean carnival, now known as Carimas, can’t come soon enough.
“For the last nine months we have been working hard to put on a good parade for the city,” said Carimas Festival spokesperson, Kris Bennett.
Organizers of this year’s carnival announced more details after revealing a week ago that the city had granted them a licence.
That team is the Caribbean Coalition Network of Montreal (CCNM), a new group that won the city’s approval from among several proposals.
The Coalition, a local group made up of seven Caribbean island societies, was formed a few years ago to promote Caribbean cultures and interests in the province. Hosting the carnival is a new mandate.
“Montreal once had the biggest carnival in North America, and in time we look and plan to bring it back to that,” explained Jason Forbes, president of the YUL Cultural Association. His group was brought in to coordinate the march.
The carnival, known for years as Carifyta, was canceled last year after the city rejected longtime organizers, citing governance concerns with the group. The CCNM has rebranded this year’s event as the Carimas Festival and will include four events over a period of one month.
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Things kick off with two pageants, one June 9th for girls and the other on June 22nd for young women.
Dawn McNichols, who is in charge of the committee that puts those together, says that rehearsals have already started.
“(For the younger participants) we have 16 but our maximum is 20, so we still have room if anyone wants to come and take part,” she laughs. “For the 18 and over we have 8. Maximum is 10.”
There is also a junior carnival for children, called Petit Carimas, on the schedule, but that date has not yet been set. For the main event, the July 6th Carimas parade, Forbes says ten costumed bands have already committed.
“Some of them are connected to Trinidad. We have three Haitian bands. I can tell you that much,” he told Global News. “We also have two bands coming from Africa, coming from Zimbabwe and Ghana.”
He says that is in addition to seven groups without uniforms making 17 dedicated groups in total so far. One dragon dance group from the Chinese community confirmed with Global News that they too are interested in participating.
After the parade there will be cultural activities, concerts and cooking events. The location for that and the parade routes have not yet been confirmed. CCNM officials say they wanted to do even more, but time was short.
“We wanted to include things like a big calypso show, which (traditionally) is part of the Carnival, and which would portray our culture and our art,” explained Ketlyn Maitland-Blades, a member of CCM and president of the Cultural Association Dominica Island in Montreal.
He added that they also want to do “J’ouvert,” another parade to open the festival, as well as a carnival king and queen contest. According to her, plans are underway to add those to next year’s celebrations, provided they get the renewal on the city’s licence.
The CCNM says they are waiting to see if the city will give them a five-year mandate to host the festival.
The coalition wants to raise another $75,000 in addition to the $30,000 from the City of Montreal and began fundraising a week ago.
“Yes, some organizations have reached out to us to ask what they can do to help us,” Cynthia Waithe, CCM member and president of Barbados House Montreal points out.
& copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
