Caribbean culture sweet man!

This ray of sunshine, this sweet mosaic, this melting pot, this Caribbean culture.

It is that time again and the one of many, the Caribana is front and center as  the mind's internal clock seem to beckon you to get ready. It has been a year since you've had your cultural infusion and a mind has it's needs.

First some good news about Caribana.

It may not be common knowledge to those of us outside of Canada but the organization that presents caribana the Caribbean Cultural Committee (CCC) is plagued by financial and administrative problems. The sense of  contrition of the last year didn't help -- S.A.R.S and all.

Now with the operation being taken over by people with backgrounds in finances,
optimism is high for Caribana's long term prospects. An interesting foot note. John Kam now chairman of the CCC has held the position of treasurer for 5 years, he has also held positions in management services and human relations as well, by some accounts Kam and his team brings with them what might be the greatest asset of all. A passion for the culture of Caribana.

My personal feelings, for reasons I have yet to surmise, is that this Caribana was
special. The costumes also seemed more creative than those I've seen before.

It was a great day for the Caribana Parade of Bands. Despite fears to the contrary,
mother nature served up a great parade day, with one  caveat...the wind.

The battle of wind and masquerader shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone. It's
overwhelming presences year after year for some of the floats is a well known
punctuation in this event. Yet a few  of these players were left to the mercy of the wind.

As the masquerader move away from the judges there were accosted by strong winds that brought them to a virtual stand still. This some times required the assistance of one or more of the support crews to keep the thing in the grove.

This particular photo is notable for the valiant effort this individual from Errol Achue's
"Monegram-Mas Toronto" put up. But despite his valiant attempts to move forward without help --he would eventually succumb to mother nature's  might. In what I suppose was more frustration and wounded pride, than what would otherwise seem to be exhaustion.

While another knowing when she was licked  abandoned  her burden to support
workers. In this picture one of the support crew took over the float while the
masquerader got her second wind.