The Toronto Star has a long, rich history of capturing the city in photos. Every Monday this summer, we will take a look back at images of the city that we’ve likely forgotten.

Tempers flared and members of his band suspected sabotage from a competitor as Clive Brand’s Caribana costume went up in flames.

The 31-year-old spent two months and $400 working on an elaborate costume for an audience of 1,000 before it burst into flames and had to be dumped into Lake Ontario.

“Oh well,” Brand told the Star on the night of the Caribana pre-carnival extravaganza where he, despite the fire, managed to win King of the Bands in 1971.

“It was too good to last, anyway.”

That Caribana tradition of showcasing colourful costumes, ornate with iridescent embellishments, has survived to this day as a summer staple in the city. The competition Brand took part in is now called the King and Queen Band Show.

Leaders of the mas bands will put on their showcase to judges and crowds this year Aug. 1., kicking off a carnival weekend that includes a steel pan orchestra competition and the many-storied annual Grande Parade.

But in 1971, long before Caribana festivities began to gather millions of people to Toronto streets as they do today, the festival was still finding its footing, marred by accidents such as Brand’s.

Two brothers, aged 9 and 11, were killed and a dozen spectators injured, including the boys’ dad, in the 1971 Caribana parade at Front and Yonge Sts., when a car plowed through as its brakes failed.

“I’ve had the car in to the garage recently to have the brakes fixed,” said driver Dorris Vivian Noel, then 51, who was on her way home from the parade.

Two days later, the Star reported that a jam-packed bus erupted in havoc in the early morning hours after the parade when some passengers began to yell “obscenities” and throw punches toward the others on their way home.

Off-duty TTC officers attempted to bring the fracas under control and serious injuries were reported. A man and woman were robbed.

It was later reported the incident had to do with “a possible lack of planning” from Caribana organizers.

Regular Caribana attendee Angelyn Peek Antwi, 67, says the “havoc and mess in those early years never bothered me.”

“It was all just a big party,” she said in an interview, recalling when she was a “silly, young” 19-year-old who went to the parade with her friends in 1971.

She says she now brings her family and young grandchildren to the festivities to celebrate their Jamaican roots, “with politics left outside the door.”

“People love making everything a social justice issue,” said Antwi. “Sometimes you just got to relax, have fun and dance a little.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

The name of the festival was changed in 2011 after the Ontario Superior Court ruled that it couldn’t use the name Caribana because it was trademarked by a group that founded the event, but doesn’t run it now.

The Toronto Caribbean Carnival kicks off with a lighting of the CN Tower Thursday. The main parade will assemble after 8:30 a.m. near Exhibition Place on Saturday, winding their away along Lake Shore Boulevard and back to the assembly area where onlookers can celebrate until 6 p.m.

To see more stories and photos from the Star’s archives follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

Correction - July 29, 2019: This article was edited from a previous version that referred to the present day carnival as Caribana. In fact, the event is now called the Toronto Caribbean Carnival.

Temur Durrani is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star's radio room in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @temurdur