{"id":226,"date":"2023-09-07T20:31:54","date_gmt":"2023-09-07T20:31:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/afrocaribrantfestival.org\/2026\/?p=226"},"modified":"2026-05-12T18:37:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T18:37:09","slug":"celebrating-afro-caribbean-culture-in-brant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/afrocaribrantfestival.org\/2026\/celebrating-afro-caribbean-culture-in-brant\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Afro-Caribbean Culture in Brant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Celeste Percy-Beauregard | \u00a0Local Journalism Initiative Reporter The Hamilton Spectator<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Lions Park in Paris will welcome the first Afro-Caribbean Festival in the County of Brant on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome of the organizers are from the area, and we\u2019ve been in the community for a while and we wanted to talk about our culture, diversity, acceptance and inclusiveness,\u201d said CEO of Darmont Events, Tobi Adedayo, who brought the idea forward to the county.<\/p>\n<p>Organized by the Darmont GivesBack division of the event company, the family-friendly celebration is open to everyone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re expecting musical performances, we\u2019re going to have a drum session, workshops and the kids\u2019 zone,\u201d said Essay Folami, programs director for Darmont Events.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot to forgot the cuisine and delicacies from the African Caribbean community,\u201d Folami added.<\/p>\n<p>Among the vendors will be Persaud\u2019s Ethnic Grocery Store from Burford. Nikita Sarju-Persaud opened the shop with her husband Randy this August, and said they\u2019re bringing a variety of treats, including beverages like sugar cane juice, sweet lemonade and Kola Champagne, and pastries like pineapple tarts, cheese rolls and coconut buns.<\/p>\n<p>Entertainment though the day will include performances by Nigerian-Canadian singer Haliyah Hales and drummer and educator Babarinde \u201cBaba\u201d Williams, who younger attendees may recognize from performances at the Brantford Public Library and local schools.<\/p>\n<p>Williams said his set will give some young audience members a moment to shine. \u201cI\u2019m going to invite on stage 20 to 30 kids and they\u2019ll do an impromptu (drumming) demonstration with me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The organizers are already thinking ahead to future years, having received positive advance feedback.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople have been waiting for this to happen in the county,\u201d said Adedayo.<\/p>\n<p>Celeste Percy-Beauregard\u2019s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. The funding allows her to report on stories about Brant County.<\/p>\n<p>Afro-Caribbean Festival Details:<\/p>\n<p>Saturday Sept. 9 at Lions Park Paris<\/p>\n<p>11 a.m. to 9 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Free admission.<\/p>\n<p>afrocaribbeanfestival.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lions Park in Paris will welcome the first Afro-Caribbean Festival organized by the Darmont GivesBack in the County of Brant on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":238258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/afrocaribrantfestival.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/afrocaribrantfestival.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/afrocaribrantfestival.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afrocaribrantfestival.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afrocaribrantfestival.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/afrocaribrantfestival.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":238264,"href":"https:\/\/afrocaribrantfestival.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226\/revisions\/238264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afrocaribrantfestival.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/afrocaribrantfestival.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afrocaribrantfestival.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afrocaribrantfestival.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}