Edmonton Cariwest Festival

For a guy who doesn't like parades, I sure go to a lot of them.

Last week in Edmonton was the Cariwest Festival celebrating Caribbean Arts. Its a fun little event with great food (jerk chicken & roti) and cheerful people.

The celebration of the Islands actually exposes a pretty weird little dichotomy in the city. You have two competing events literally right across the river from each other that are laser focused in their individual demographics; Cariwest with people of African descent celebrating together to raucous music and Edmonton Folk Music Festival where people mostly of European descent hang out swaying together on a hill.  Its a chessboard in the city of Edmonton.

Nearing noon on Saturday (the parade never starts on time) Chrissy and I settled in along 102ave to watch the parade and snap some pictures.

Jamaica, who are celebrating 50 years of independence, where front and center in the Parade.

 They were followed by Trinidad and Tobago who were also celebrating a golden anniversary. After the two countries paraded through it seemed to break up into random dance crews.  

 Definitely the highlight for me is the costumes and the giant personal floats/costumes.

They even got their pets involved this year.

I'm not sure if it was just me but the parade seemed to be a little thinner than previous years. However, it was still pretty great and got my seal of approval