Nigel Teles­ford

Fresh from the cor­po­rate launch of Trinidad Car­ni­val 2026 at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts, the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) has joined forces with the Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so Or­gan­i­sa­tion and the Toron­to Con­sulate to stage the Trin­ba­go Toron­to Fes­ti­val, which runs this week­end at Nathan Phillips Square in down­town Toron­to.

The event opened on Fri­day un­der the theme “A True Trin­ba­go Af­ter Work Lime”—a re­laxed, cul­tur­al show­case cel­e­brat­ing the rhythm, wit, and sto­ry­telling tra­di­tions of T&T through steel­pan, ca­lyp­so, and stand-up com­e­dy.

MC and cul­tur­al icon Dr Ri­ta Cox, a pil­lar of the T&T com­mu­ni­ty in Toron­to, of­fi­cial­ly opened the fes­ti­val with a warm wel­come. Pa­trons were treat­ed to a high-en­er­gy line-up fea­tur­ing chut­ney star GI, ex­tem­po monarch Black Sage, and comedic per­former My­ron B, along­side daz­zling moko jumbies, ba­by dolls, and tra­di­tion­al In­di­an war­riors—bring­ing a slice of Trin­ba­go’s Car­ni­val mag­ic to the heart of Cana­da’s largest city.

“It is tru­ly an on­go­ing plea­sure to see so many of our T&T na­tion­als come out and sup­port the Trin­ba­go Toron­to Fes­ti­val,” said NCC Deputy Chair­man Ke­van Gibbs.

“The Com­mis­sion con­tin­ues to ful­fill its man­date to show­case our vi­brant cul­tur­al prod­ucts through­out the Di­as­po­ra—of­fer­ing cul­tur­al ap­pe­tis­ers that in­vite every­one to come home and ex­pe­ri­ence Car­ni­val in Feb­ru­ary.”

On Sat­ur­day, the fes­ti­val kept the pace with a packed pro­gramme from 1 pm to 10 pm, fea­tur­ing DJs Karyen, Shi­va, and Steph Hon­ey, along­side Dance Caribe, So­ca­cize, The Mahi­ma Dance Acad­e­my, The STCC Dance Acad­e­my, Im­pulse Steel Or­ches­tra, D En­for­cas, JFiyre, Kersh Ram­sey, Du­vone Stew­art, John­ny King, DJ Doc, Ben­jai, and Iw­er George.

The three-day cel­e­bra­tion con­tin­ues through Sun­day, ce­ment­ing its place as a ma­jor cul­tur­al bridge be­tween T&T and its di­as­po­ra in Cana­da.