How the Caribbean Carnival has changed over the years

Bright coloured costumes and upbeat music have always been a staple in Toronto's Caribbean Carnival, but longtime volunteer Colin Benjamin says a lot has changed about the festival and the city over the years.

The annualfestival, which wraps up with the grandparade on Saturday, was first introduced in1967. It was known at the time as Caribanaand it was envisionedas a week-long celebration of Caribbean culture through traditional cuisine, music and parades. Now threeweeks long, it continues to take to the streets of Toronto every year during the month of July.

Here's a look at the festival's evolution over the years.

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1980

"This event started as a Caribbean festival, but now it's really become something much more than that," said Benjamin, whohas volunteered for over 25 years.

1985

In thefirst fewdecadestheevent was run, it wasmuch smallerand far fewer people lined the streets, he said. Almost all of thespectators and participantswere from the Caribbean community in Toronto.

1990

"It was nice to see ourcommunity come out and have fun, but we wanted the celebration to be hugeand reach a muchlarger audience," he said.

2001

In an effort to attract people from farther afield,theCaribbean Cultural Committee - the non-profit organization that planned the event between1967 to 2006-sent him to the Caribbeanin the early2000sto promote Toronto's event and recruit more participants.

That strategy proved successful, and more peoplefromthe islands and the United States started visiting.

However, he said that even though organizers were happyto hostlarge crowdsof visitors,the committee remained concerned about the lack of Canadian presence.

"We've always wanted it to be just as much of an event for Toronto and for Canada as it has been for us," he said. "That was just not the case back then."

2008

The City of Toronto took over the event in 2006, as theCaribbean Cultural Committee faced financial trouble. Arift between the committee and the city over the trademark name Caribana, would see it renamed as the Caribbean Carnival in 2011.

• Toronto Caribana festival gets new name

2013

In addition to getting a new name, Benjamin said the festival has seen a lot of changein thepast 10 years,asthe city evolved.

"This city no longer defines itself with one culture. It's now made up of people with all different kinds of roots and that's created so many more opportunities for celebrations like ours," he said.

As a result, he said the festival's food and music are no longer solely focused onCaribbean culture, and the participants arefrom a diverse variety of backgrounds. He also said that it now gets supportfrom a number of local businesseswho provide food and decorations.

2014

"People areopening their minds to our culture, so we've opened our minds to theirs, and now cultures all across the board are having fun together," said Benjamin.

He said he believes thathaving all of thesecultures "unitingtogether" for this celebrationholds promise for the years to come.

2015

"Allowing future generations from all kinds of backgrounds to take part in and learn about their heritage and their ancestral culture, is what this festival is all about," he said.

"It creates a space of happiness, inclusion andacceptance, and that's been the goal since thebeginning."