Caribana To Change Their Name

Looks like the annual Caribbean festival in Toronto may be going through some changes - again...

For years we have heard the problems that "Caribana" (can we still use that name this year?), has been having they all seem to revolve around money. City not giving them money, hotels not giving them money, no money for Band leaders, not enough money for Steelbands, etc. when is it all going to end?

I have always said that the festival should shut down for at least 3 years for us to accurately discern how much money is involved. If that were to happen everyone would see exactly what is at stake, everyone, from the city to hotels to the tax payers that seem to think that this is only about the Caribbean ethnic community. It is not.

This festival is one of the highlights of the Toronto summer and is very important and should be accorded its importance. However when we are fighting among ourselves, what outside entity would want to come in the middle. It is like a domestic squabble between a husband and a wife and the police intervenes to protect the wife and she turns around and start beating the police.

In my opinion the city would rather leave the festival to be run by a stable organizing committee that would keep proper records and only come to them when they have a need for which they can not provide for themselves. But with all the squabbling that goes on, why would the city want to be involved. So we keep shooting ourselves in the foot every time.

Does anyone know how to resolve this?

I do not think the festival will ever go away, as someone will always step up to fill the void that would be left, even if the city did something themselves, so the shut down is out of the question, regardless of what I may have wished for, earlier.

I don't see how the organizers are going to make any money though in a free society cause there will always be other promoters that treat that time as a business, and organize their own events that would draw away from the present organizers.

Anyway enough ramblings for now, let's see what happens this year. As you know this is really organized chaos cause come hell or high water, regardless of the problems, the show will go on.