Organizers behind the Montreal Carimas Festival say this summer\u2019s celebration is about more than music and costumes \u2014 it\u2019s part of a broader effort to revive a Caribbean carnival tradition they say once defined the city.<\/p>\n
The Caribbean Coalition Network of Montreal officially launched the festival Thursday, confirming a series of cultural events leading up to its main street parade on July 4.<\/p>\n
Now in its third year under the coalition\u2019s leadership, the festival builds on a carnival legacy in Montreal that stretches back more than five decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is our third edition, but carnival goes back over 40, 50 years in Montreal. And so it\u2019s just a continuation of that celebration,\u201d said Mark Henry, president of the organization.<\/p>\n He said the event reflects both cultural pride and a desire to share that identity more widely.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important because many of us who have immigrated to this country, we leave a lot of ourself home to reintegrate into a new country, a new place,\u201d Henry said.<\/p>\n He added that the festival is intended to bridge that gap by bringing Caribbean traditions into Quebec\u2019s cultural landscape.<\/p>\n For organizers, the festival is also about ensuring younger generations remain connected to their roots.<\/p>\n Sharon Baptiste, spokesperson for the festival, secretary of the Grenada Nationals Association of Montreal and a founding member of the Caribbean Coalition Network of Montreal, said she is deeply involved in the community behind the event.<\/p>\n She said the festival gives young people \u2014 particularly those born in Canada \u2014 a chance to better understand their cultural background.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s very important to celebrate our culture here in Montreal,\u201d Baptiste said.<\/p>\n She added the event goes beyond visual spectacle, highlighting storytelling through music and shared experiences.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want not only our kids to know that culture, but we want the rest of the world and Montreal \u2026 to feel what we feel as Caribbean people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Baptiste said the coalition itself reflects a spirit of collaboration.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Caribbean coalition is a unity of seven islands coming together, working together, volunteering together,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Music and performance will play a central role in this year\u2019s festival, with several carnival bands set to take part in the parade.<\/p>\n Organizers say returning groups include Rayne Carnival, TNT One, Desire Carnival, World by Storme and Big Daddy Mix, with additional bands expected from across the Caribbean, including Haiti and St. Lucia.<\/p>\n Each band will bring its own theme, sound and visual identity to the streets, combining music, dance and costume design in a format rooted in Caribbean carnival traditions.<\/p>\n Participants will move through the city in coordinated groups, accompanied by high-energy music.<\/p>\n Baptiste said the atmosphere is a defining part of the experience.<\/p>\n \u201cThe music gives this sort of vibes that does, that makes you want to dance even though you didn\u2019t go to dance,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n In the weeks leading up to the parade, the festival will include a pageant, a youth carnival event and a series of community gatherings.<\/p>\n At the centre of it all are the costumes \u2014 intricate, colourful designs that carry cultural meaning.<\/p>\n Mass maker Raquel Huggins said each piece is carefully constructed to reflect both heritage and creativity.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about heritage. It\u2019s about our fight. It\u2019s about keeping our traditions alive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Huggins explained that costumes are designed around themes, with each section representing different elements.<\/p>\n \u201cThis year our theme is about nature,\u201d she said, describing how colours and materials are used to represent landscapes like rainforests and the sky.<\/p>\n For some involved, the festival also represents an effort to restore Montreal\u2019s place in the broader Caribbean carnival scene.<\/p>\n Ronald Greenidge, who represents the TNT-ONE foundation and helps create costumes, said the city once played a central role.<\/p>\n \u201cMontreal was the mecca of carnival. Everything started here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He said the goal now is to rebuild that presence and reintroduce the energy that once defined the event.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are trying to bring back that flavor in Montreal,\u201d Greenidge said.<\/p>\n He described the work behind the scenes as both demanding and deeply personal, involving materials sourced from around the world and significant personal investment.<\/p>\n \u201cCarnival is in my bone. It\u2019s in my culture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Greenidge added that broader support will be key to sustaining the festival\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that people should actually come out and embrace this \u2026 because if they don\u2019t, this is going to die,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n For participants, the festival is not only cultural, but emotional.<\/p>\n Storme Moore, a band leader with World by Storm, said her involvement is tied to family and legacy.<\/p>\n \u201cMy grandmother was alive, and now she\u2019s gone, and now that she\u2019s not here, I want to leave a legacy for her,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Moore described carnival as both a personal outlet and a shared experience.<\/p>\n \u201cCarnival is my happy place, and it\u2019s really a joy \u2026 to see people come out and party with us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The festival will culminate in a street parade followed by \u201cCarimas Sizzle,\u201d a park event featuring music and performances.<\/p>\n Organizers say the goal is to create a space where culture, history and community come together \u2014 not just for Caribbean Montrealers, but for the city as a whole.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to having a great celebration of our culture within the Quebec space,\u201d Henry said.<\/p>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source montreal.citynews.ca \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Organizers behind the Montreal Carimas Festival say this summer\u2019s celebration is about more than music and costumes \u2014 it\u2019s part of a broader effort to revive a Caribbean carnival tradition they say once defined the city. The Caribbean Coalition Network of Montreal officially launched the festival Thursday, confirming a series of cultural events leading up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2377325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2377324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Montreal-Carimas-Festival-to-return-with-parade-cultural-events.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2377324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2377324"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2377324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2377326,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2377324\/revisions\/2377326"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2377325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2377324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2377324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2377324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPassing culture across generations<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/montreal.citynews.ca\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/sites\/19\/2026\/04\/IMG_0918-1024x768.jpg\")
\nBands and music at the heart of the festival<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\nArt, history and expression on the streets<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/montreal.citynews.ca\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/sites\/19\/2026\/04\/IMG_0927-1024x768.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/montreal.citynews.ca\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/sites\/19\/2026\/04\/IMG_0919-1024x768.jpg\")
\nA push to rebuild carnival in Montreal<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/montreal.citynews.ca\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/sites\/19\/2026\/04\/IMG_0923-1024x768.jpg\")
\nA celebration with personal meaning<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/montreal.citynews.ca\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/sites\/19\/2026\/04\/IMG_0932-1024x768.jpg\")
\nLooking ahead to July<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/montreal.citynews.ca\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/sites\/19\/2026\/04\/IMG_0910-1024x768.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>
\n\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n