Icom's Blog – September 2019 Archive (6)

A grey cloud was cast over Downsview Park, but no amount of downpour could deter this crowd. It was an idyllic setting: good food, familiar music, family, friends and the warmth of the Caribbean. Dancehall, reggae and soca boomed from the speakers, scoring skank dances and rockaways. For those unable to travel to the Caribbean for soca monarchs or big annual stage shows, One Love Festival was Toronto’s perfect summer…

In the push to make soca global, artistes and promoters are being encouraged to make their events more inclusive.

An American Sign Language interpreter known as Flinghandz said when we could open up and bring inclusion in, the differences become less and the similarities among us become greater.

Flinghandz has been opening up the world of soca to Deaf and Hard of…

CAMBRIDGE — Citing a potential for gang violence after bloodshed last week at a Caribbean festival in Boston, the Cambridge Carnival will be canceled this year, breaking a 26-year tradition, organizers said Friday.

Police made the decision to cancel the festival based on “reliable intelligence” that a gang was “planning to use our event as a venue to stage a retaliatory act of gun violence, potentially…

‘Famalay’ was the hottest Caribbean collaboration of 2019. Bunji Garlin, Machel Montano and St. Vincent’s Skinny Fabulous did the most last carnival in T&T, energetically persuading fetters and masqueraders alike, that their collab was the monster of all soca tracks, eventually taking home the coveted Road March title. One season later, Garlin’s wife is challenging the new precedence, having teamed up with fellow Viking, Jaiga and Grenada’s Lil…

THE National Carnival Commission (NCC) will be launching Carnival 2020 at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Carnival City on Monday September 23 from 6 pm, and it is free to the public. NCC chairman Winston “Gypsy” Peters said that last year the Commission took a decision to launch Carnival the day before the Republic Day holiday and began doing so started it on 2018.

Therefore they are only continuing with that…

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve walked down the colourful, sweaty streets that make up Notting Hill Carnival over the years. I’ve lived a 10-minute walk from the event, perhaps my favourite of the year, all my life. I’ve “chipped” (another way to describe moving in rhythm to the beat of the music as you make your way through the festivities) down the road; gleefully danced with energetic revellers, sung along to new and old Soca hits, high…