Carifiesta Montreal festival, parade in limbo after city denies funding

The organizers of Montreal's annual Carifiesta parade say the event might not happen this summer after the city of Montreal denied its regular funding. 

In a letter sent to Carifiesta last week, the city said it had reviewed its grant application in the context of Montreal's updated funding program for festivals and cultural events — one that allows it "to better represent the Montreal festival ecosystem."

"Given the quality of the applications received, the evaluation committee had to make choices and select projects that most closely align with program objectives. Unfortunately, your project was not selected by the committee," reads the letter signed by the cultural service department director, Kevin Donnelly.

In an email to CBC Monday, the city said it denied Carifiesta's application because of issues related to its grant submission. It said it made multiple attempts to contact the organizer to no avail. 

Everiste Blaize, president of the Caribbean Cultural Festivities Association that puts on the festival, however, said he was taken aback by the decision and said he hasn't heard from the city since he submitted his application for funding in January. 

He said the letter he received reads as though his festival simply didn't meet the city's new cultural criteria. 

"I would like for somebody to explain why my culture, or the culture of Carifiesta, is not culture enough to fit in," he said. 

"It'd be interesting to see what an ecosystem looks like when we're not part of it." 

Historically, the city has provided about $30,000 to parade organizers every year. The parade, which celebrates Caribbean culture and history, has been running since 1974, although it was cancelled in 2010 due to a conflict between two competing organizing committees. It was also off for two years during the pandemic.

The city said it updated its funding program for festivals and cultural events in 2022 to be able to sustainably support more events and to improve the financing criteria to better govern public funds.

It said Blaize was advised of the changes and that the city contacted him several times offering to help with his submission but never received a response.

"The Carifiesta project as presented was not deemed viable in 2023," it said, adding there were also issues from last year's edition of the festival that have not been addressed. 

The city said it will be meeting with the organizers this week to discuss the issues related to the application they submitted and to "explore possible solutions."

Blaize said he's waiting for the city to reach out to him, but in the meantime, he's looking at other solutions.