The Caribana Ignite Festival has been cancelled just 10 days before the street party was set to take over downtown Kitchener. The annual event is a celebration of Caribbean culture told through colourful costumes, catchy music and, of course, food. Modelled after Toronto’s Caribbean Carnival, the two-day festival was supposed to start on Aug. 21. The city said the Caribana Arts Group made the call after “careful consideration.” “Recent organizational changes and the time required to successfully plan and deliver a major cultural festival have made it clear that additional preparation time is needed to ensure the event meets the expectations of the community and participants,” they explained in a media release. Rudi Quammie Williams, the interim board chair for the Caribana Arts Group, gave further insight into the situation. “The organization itself has had a change in leadership,” he said. “Some of the people that are now coming into it, like myself, we’re not knowledgeable enough about the Caribbean Ignite plannings, which was really being done by one person who is local to Kitchener. It became a bit of a solo effort on that person’s part. It’s not really how we do it… which is part of the issue as well.” Williams called the event a “labour of love.” But, he added, change is necessary going forward. “We have to be realistic and have an understanding, perhaps, we need to generate a model that will this festival will be able to sustain,” he said. “We don’t want to also create a standard that is lower than what we feel the people deserve.” Williams also expressed his disappointment that they had to make the last-minute decision to call off Caribana Ignite. He said it was a matter of not having all the information needed to move forward with the festival. “At some point, we had to make a determination. Are we actually prepared to do it this year and do it justice or should we not and park our horses for a bit?” Williams explained. “We would have loved to have made the decision earlier… and we apologize for that. That’s unfortunate.” The Caribana Arts Group, however, remains focused on the future. “2027 will be the 60th anniversary of the very first Caribana that was held in Toronto in 1967,” Williams said. “We see a lot more opportunities and perhaps an ability to do this thing in a way that will really bring value to the community.” The city also has high hopes for the festival’s return. “We’re just so proud of what Caribana Ignite accomplished in its first two years. It brought people together, it allowed us to celebrate our diversity,” Oanh Kasperski, Kitchener’s director of corporate communications and marketing, told CTV News. “The city values this partnership. We look forward to continuing conversations and exploring opportunities with the Caribana Arts Group to bring this event back, bigger and better, when they’re ready for it.” With reporting by Karis Mapp
