Latest news with #Cariwest


CTV News
11-08-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
A wrap on Edmonton's ‘good vibes only' Caribbean arts festival
Sunday's gloomy weather didn't stop the final celebrations of the Cariwest Caribbean Arts Festival in downtown Edmonton. The festivities included a lineup of DJs, food trucks and market vendors for what organizer Anna Maria Edwards said was a successful wrap-up of the three-day event. 'Our theme this year is 'good vibes only,' and we really try to make sure that that's what people felt when they came here, just the colour and the fun,' she said. Edwards reflected on the festival's history as this year marked the 41st anniversary. She estimates that tens of thousands of people came through over the weekend, especially for Saturday's parade. 'We started off just going down Grierson Hill with our parade … and there were maybe 100 people,' Edwards said. 'So it's really grown, and we're just enjoying providing such a great atmosphere of fun and enjoyment and happiness.' With files from CTV News Edmonton's Marek Tkach


CBC
10-08-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Western Canada's largest celebration of Caribbean culture hits streets of Edmonton
Thousands hit the streets of downtown Edmonton this weekend for Cariwest, Western Canada's Largest Caribbean Arts Festival.


CTV News
10-08-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
A look at the Caribbean festival parade dancing its way downtown
The Cariwest Caribbean Arts Festival saw a large crowd for its parade on Aug. 9, 2025. (Cameron Wiebe/CTV News Edmonton) While Friday saw the official beginning of Cariwest Caribbean Arts Festival, Saturday's parade kicked off the full celebration of colour and culture in Edmonton's downtown. The three-day festival's afternoon parade began at 108 Street and Jasper Avenue and danced its way east to Sir Winston Churchill Square. Cariwest festival stilts edmonton A woman on stilts walks in the Cariwest Festival on Aug. 9, 2025. (Cameron Wiebe/CTV News Edmonton) 'The Cariwest Festival is really about being inclusive,' said the event's president, Samantha Alexander. 'It's celebrating Caribbean culture. So it is a way to keep that culture alive, but it's also an opportunity to introduce it to the rest of Edmonton.' Cariwest Festival Edmonton Many people dressed up for the festivities. Aug. 9, 2025. (Cameron Wiebe/CTV News Edmonton) Festivities continue in the square on Saturday until 11 p.m. and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday. Both Saturday and Sunday will see DJ entertainment, food trucks and market vendors. Food - Cariwest Edmonton Food trucks and stands are all around the festival. (Cameron Wiebe/CTV News Edmonton) There's also a kids zone for children aged between one and six, for arts and crafts. They'll also have the opportunity to play steel pan and walk on stilts. A full schedule can be found on the festival's website. With files from CTV News Edmonton's Cameron Wiebe and Adrienne Lee


CTV News
08-08-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Caribbean culture will take over Edmonton's downtown this weekend
Cariwest Caribbean Arts Festival will kick off its 41st year, celebrating Caribbean culture through food and music. A stage was being set up in downtown Edmonton on August 8, 2025. (Sasha Pietramala/CTV News Edmonton) Cariwest Caribbean Arts Festival organizers are hoping to bring the colour to Edmonton's downtown despite the cloudy weekend weather. Set up was underway on Friday morning in Sir Winston Churchill Square, where the three-day carnival celebrating Caribbean culture will take place until Sunday. Food trucks, market vendors, and live entertainment will fill the square when the festival officially kicks off at 5 p.m. on Friday. The first night will include a costume extravaganza, giving people an opportunity to see the large costumes up close before they are seen in Saturday's parade. Cariwest Caribbean Arts Festival 2025 Merchandise tents are being set up at Sir Winston Churchill Square in Edmonton on August 8, 2025. (Sasha Pietramala/CTV News Edmonton) The parade starts its route at noon, beginning at 108 Street and Jasper Avenue, before travelling east to Sir Winston Churchill Square. The following road closures will be in effect during the parade: Jasper Avenue, between 100 and 109 Street; 99 Avenue, between 107 and 109 Street; 100 Street, between Jasper Avenue and 103A Avenue; and 108 Street, between 99 Avenue and Jasper Avenue. 'Our footprint is growing,' Cariwest President Samantha Alexander told CTV News Edmonton on Friday before the festival, which is in its 41st year. 'It's a testament to the Edmontonians. Everybody knows that we're a festival city. It's a really great time of year. I know that there's many other festivals happening on this same weekend, but we do still get the numbers out.' The Western Carnival Development Association is a non-profit organization that brings the annual carnival to life, with 100 per cent of the board filled by volunteers. Alexander added that most of the parade participants are also volunteers. 'Without them volunteering their time to make costumes and then to come out and participate in the parade, there would be no parade,' she said. Festivities will continue in the square on Saturday until 11 p.m., and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday. Cariwest Caribbean Arts Festival 2025 Caribbean culture will be celebrated with music and food during the Cariwest Caribbean Arts Festival this weekend. Set up was underway on August 8, 2025. (Sasha Pietramala/CTV News Edmonton) A kids zone will be set up for children ages one to six, which is meant to educate and keep Caribbean culture alive, said organizers. Kids will get to do arts and crafts, and have an opportunity to play steel pan and walk on stilts. 'It's vibrant and very colourful (and) displays a lot of energy and excitement,' Alexander said about the festival's longevity. 'The closer we get to it, everybody just feels this bubbling joy.' A full schedule of events is listed on the festival website. With files from CTV News Edmonton's Sasha Pietramala and Brandon Lynch


Vancouver Sun
07-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Vancouver Sun
Things to do in Edmonton this week: Cariwest, Marigold roof gigs and Quietly Screaming
Cariwest : Vibrating with colour, musical floats and those astronomically gorgeous costumes, the dazzling annual Cariwest parade is one of Edmonton's most joyful couple hours of the entire year! The electric cavalcade runs noon to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, starting at 108 Street and 99 Avenue, running along Jasper, cutting north to Churchill Square on 109 Street. The multi-ethnic pride fest itself is much bigger than this, of course, with the Churchill Square carnival encompassing Caribbean Village, Friday through Sunday. Get top headlines and gossip from the world of celebrity and entertainment. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sun Spots will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. With a backdrop of music and big-feathered performance on its central stage, there's plenty to eat and drink at this fabulous fête, starting with the 11 a.m. Friday soft opening. Seriously not to be missed! Details : Fri./Sat. 11 a.m. – 11 p.m., 11 a.m. – 9 p.m. Sun. on Churchill Square, no charge Quietly Screaming : Saturday is your last chance to check out Guelph, Ont., artist Chanel Desroches' large-scale works over at the newish PRG on 124 Street. Exuberant and compelling, 'as a queer woman negotiating the pressures of public space and personal history,' reads her bio, 'she uses abstraction as a tool of deflection and camouflage. 'Her marks, scribbles, cuts and smudges channel anxiety, sarcasm and resistance.' That all really comes across, each of her canvasses mixing oil painting, oil stick drawing, graphite and other media in a delightful collision of colour and style that exudes vibrancy and conflicting personality traits held together with an absolute style that circles back to the show's paradoxical title. Details : 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Tuesdays – Saturdays at Peter Robertson Gallery (10332 124 St.), no charge Marigold Rooftop concerts : Summoning the vibe of the long-lost Latitude 53 open-air patio with a western, Little House on the Prairie Vibe, Marigold Rooftop — MR for short, in honour of recently-passed-away orange tabby Mr. Cheeto — is such a Whyte Avenue sweet spot. With a series of summer gigs before the snow crushes our souls, Saturday night it's the duo bill of grungy folksinger Jordan Norman and master pedal steel player Booker Diduck. Shows keep being announced, including next Friday's in the midst of the Fringe with Carter Felker and the gentle music of Sam the Living. Keep checking Instagram for more bookings at @double_lunch and @marigoldrooftop , and swing by any time after 7 p.m. on industry Mondays and Thursdays to Saturdays for hotdogs, or insanely good food from Bibo downstairs. Details : 7 p.m. Saturday at Marigold Rooftop (10302 82 Ave.), pay what you can Throne of Blood (1957) : Probably my top Kurosawa film thanks to its intense tone and jarring mystical components, this relentless adaptation of Macbeth takes place in Japan's bloody Sengoku Warring States era. With a cold and creepy Noh theatre feel including a couple impossible sets and a creepy metaphorical human spider busy weaving fate, this rather heavy metal morality play grabs you from its misty get-go. Newly restored in 4K, you don't want to miss this, or the also-cleaned up 12:15 p.m. Sunday screening of Kurosawa's 1963 'modern-day' thriller High and Low . Details : 6:45 p.m. Friday at Metro Cinema (8712 109 St.), $14 King of the Hill : After a 15-year hiatus working propane in Saudi Arabia, Hank and Peggy Hill return to an Arlen, Texas, transformed by bike lanes, annoying e-scooters and a pulled-out forest of telephone poles, where conspiracy lunatic Dale Gribble was briefly mayor during the pandemic as an anti-masker until he declared the election results moot. 'That boy ain't right' Bobby is all grown up and facing appropriation flak for his Japanese-German-Texan fusion restaurant, modern-day cultural clashing whirling around the fact the now retired and bored senior Hills are flawed but very decent people trying to make themselves useful in a world gone mad chasing app five-star ratings. More fun than Ari Aster's terrific but very intense Eddington, I tell you what — so check it out! Details : now streaming on Disney+ fgriwkowsky@ @ Love concerts, but can't make it to the venue? Stream live shows and events from your couch with VEEPS, a music-first streaming service now operating in Canada. Click here for an introductory offer of 30% off. Explore upcoming concerts and the extensive archive of past performances.