The Caribana Parade: Storming and Issues of Power and Control

The parade is the highlight of the Toronto Carnival/Caribana festival, which has become an important part of Torontos and Canadas identity; but for more than twenty years it has been affected by storming, an act of transgression in which mostly young male individuals breach fences and security along the route to participate for free in the official parade. Their interaction with the scantily clad female masqueraders produce tensions and unwanted conflicts in the space. This study assesses the dynamics of storming and its impact on various positionalities in and outside the parade. The study draws on ethnographic interviews with stormers and female masqueraders, in addition to participant observation, informal conversations and archival research to complete this analysis. Through the lens of Carnival and Performance Theory, it interrogates issues of spatialization, power relations, cultural commodification, and other factors that make the parade a site of contestation in a post-1991 era.