45th annual Carifest returns to downtown Calgary this weekend

Calgary’s Caribbean community is gearing up for the 45th annual Carifest on the weekend, with plans to honour Trinidadian cultural leader Gerry Weekes.

Festivities will take place Friday through Sunday at Cowboys Park, celebrating Caribbean culture with music, food and dancing.

On Saturday, the Grand Parade will kick off at 12:30 p.m. along Stephen Avenue, and travel west toward Cowboys Park.

Longtime volunteer Sabrina Nazcomanescu said Carifest will continue the legacy of celebrating Caribbean culture in Calgary.

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“There was a small committee back in the 1980s that had a ‘lime,’ which we would call in Trinidad a hangout, and then they found out there’s more Caribbean people here than we realized and decided they should turn this into something,” Nazcomanescu said. “In 1981, they registered as the Caribbean Community Council of Calgary, and we’ve been having the festival ever since.”

Last year, Gerard (Gerry) Weekes, died while participating in the Grand Parade.

Weekes was a designer, bandleader and King of Carnival who helped grow the festivities in Trinidad and Canada.

The final masquerade group of the parade will pay tribute to his legacy through a portrayal called “Fly High, A Tribute to Gerry Weekes,” Nazcomanescu said.

“His legacy will live on via always making sure that we have a Grand Parade,” she said. “The revelry that you get to experience in the parade is a huge part of Caribbean culture, specifically Trinidadian culture. He was a Trinidadian, and he believed in Carnival in Trinidad spreading throughout the world.”

At the Trinidad & Tobago Canadian Association of Calgary on Thursday, months of work by the IZWE Carnival were on full display in preparation for the two-and-a-half hours of the Grand Parade, said founder De-Ann Weekes.

Carnival started in 1783, with Trinidad & Tobago serving as the main site.

“Carnival started because of emancipation,” Weekes said. “We kind of started seeing the balls that our colonizers hosted, and we wanted to be a part of it but we couldn’t. So, we started doing our own thing.”