On the lighter side: Caribana Parade

This week, I am on vacation in Canada. On Saturday last week, I had the pleasure of attending the Caribana parade, a major Caribbean-style carnival they hold in Toronto every year. This year was one of the best they've ever had: over a million people attended the Saturday parade, and despite that, there were no significant incidents of violent crime.

Here are a few pictures I took:



Some of the costumes in the Caribana parade are quite expansive. Some take months to build and can cost thousands of dollars. This was one of the more impressive costumes I saw.



Here is a close-up of the same guy as the photo above.



This costume was pretty.



I was amazed to see these small kids in the parade. The girl on the right looks no older than 4. These kids are taking a break from dancing, and are riding on the parade float.



A steel drum band on a parade float. There were several in the parade.



A dragon costume.




I found this float a bit funny. The poster on the left is an ad for Riyad Mohammed, the real-estate agent (whose picture looks a lot like the guy in white standing on the float). The one on the right is for "DJ Riyad", a party disc-jockey whose float this is. I wonder if Riyad Mohammed the real-estate agent and DJ Riyad are the same person.

Like most of the floats, this one had a generator, a major sound system, and was festooned with a large array of speakers booming out soca and reggae music. This particular DJ was quite good.



Another steel drum band.




A costume (taken from the back).



Another costume.



This costume was huge.



A group of masqueraders dancing.



A group of masqueraders resting during a pause in the parade.



Another steel drum band.



Two costumes.



A masquerader dancing behind the cab of a parade float truck.