Originally Published: 2010-07-18

The Caribbean is coming to Toronto for the city’s Island Soul festival, with everything from calypso music and soca jams to rotis and reggae. The only things missing are white sandy beaches and the famous turquoise blue water.
Not that the venue for the festival, the Harbourfront Centre’s lakeside property, is without its charms. Add to that the hot summer sun, and the city will be jammin’ to the island rhythms.
Held from Aug. 1 to 4, Island Soul is part of the World Routes festival, exploring different cultures each weekend of the summer using food, music and art.
Island Soul gets to the heart of Caribbean culture with a medley of musicians, dancers, food and art, as well as a film festival themed around island cultures.
Some of the performances, including a head-wrapping workshop, are inclusive of audience members. The whole part of Island Soul, said event organizer Dalton Higgins, is to give people the full Caribbean experience.
“We showcase the best that Caribbean cultures have to offer,” explains Higgins. “We take a multidisciplinary approach to culture, so it’s not just Caribbean music but its dance, food, visual arts, everything.”
Just like each province of Italy has its own unique culture, so too do the different islands of the Caribbean. The festival focuses on the cross-sections of these different cultures, and the African, Indian and European influences on the Caribbean.
“What you’ll find when you look at Caribbean cultures, you’ll see certainly African influences in reggae music, like in Rastafarian drumming it’s routed in Africa,” says Higgins. You look at some of the cuisine that comes out of the Caribbean, some food like roti is routed in India.”
The festival is about showing people the heart of the islands, beyond Bob Marley, reggae and rum, although of course all are important to the culture.
“A lot of people they see a cliché of the Caribbean,” says Higgins. “A stereotype that’s so limiting because the culture is very much influenced by things happening maybe across seven continents.”

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