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 Every summer, Toronto (Canada) blazes
with
 the excitement of calypso, steel pan and elaborate
masquerade costumes during the annual Toronto Caribbean Carnival
and Festival.
Toronto Caribbean Carnival
 (Caribana), celebrating its 41st
anniversary in 2008, is the largest Caribbean festival in North
America. Presented by the
 Festival Management Committee, the
two-week Festival attracts over a million participants annually,
including hundreds of thousands of American tourists.
 Among the highlights is the Parade, one of the largest in North
America.
 Thousands of brilliantly costumed masqueraders and
dozens of trucks carrying live soca, calypso, steel pan, reggae
and salsa artists jam the 1.5
 km parade route all day, to the
delight of hundreds of thousands of onlookers.
Caribana was created in 1967 as a community heritage project for
Canada's Centennial year. Based on
 Trinidad Carnival, the
Festival now also includes the music, dance, food and costumes
of Jamaica, Guyana, the Bahamas, Brazil and other cultures
represented in Toronto - the world's most culturally diverse
city.
It began as the Toronto Caribbean community's salute to Canada's
Centennial year. Now in its second millennium, its fifth decade
and its 41st year, the
 Toronto Caribbean Carnival Festival is
one of North America's greatest celebrations, attracting
millions of participants and visitors each year. Rooted in
Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, it has become an international
festival where you might experience Jamaican reggae,
 Brazilian
samba or African djembe rhythms alongside Latin salsa, Haitian
zouk or urban sounds, all blended with calypso and soca vibes.
Just one glorious cacophony of unusual sounds and rhythms –
well, to our western ears anyway. It is also an exciting annual
showcase of Canada’s best Calypso and Soca original music for
the festival, each night featuring a different cast of singers
and live bands performing Calypso in its best storytelling
tradition with social and political commentary, humour and wit.
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