About Us

About Us

WELCOME TO THE CHUTNEYFEST EXPERIENCE! HERE YOU WILL BE A PART OF AN AMAZING EXPLOSION OF INDO-CARIBBEAN CULTURE!

Thanks for stopping by! CICF is proud to present the annual festival ChutneyFest! Each and every year we take pride in showcasing the best of local Indo-Caribbean talent. We feature key elements of our culture through various food, music and dance! When attending ChutneyFest you are sure to experience an explosion of Indo-Caribbean culture, with vibrant colours, tasty foods, infectious music and energetic dance moves that highlight our heritage, you are sure to be dancing along and enjoying every minute! At ChutneyFest, we ensure that the Indo-Caribbean culture is represented to the best of our ability by featuring local Canadian talent as well as international artists! With ChutneyFest happening late July of every year, be sure to pay close attention to upcoming announcements! You can always refer to our website, as well as our social medias! If you'd like to know more on what ChutneyFest is about be sure to click that read more button below!

Our Story

Now entering its 9th year, ChutneyFest is Canada's fastest-growing celebration of Indo Caribbean culture, heritage, and music. Delivered annually by the Canadian Indo Caribbean Festival (CICF), it has become the City of Brampton's Marquee event over the last two years, but a destination for anyone that enjoys the sights and sounds of the West Indies. It has also become a growing annual attraction for tourists from across North America, the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia. Attracting more than 3,500 visitors annually, and over 330,000 online in 2021, this year's event promises to be ChutneyFest's biggest to date bigger audiences, more headliners, and now a full two days in person! ChutneyFest offers a unique fusion of Indian and Caribbean influences, bringing together musicians, dancers, performers, and drummers with roots in chutney soca -a blend of traditional Hindi and English lyrics, mixing soca beats with traditional dholak drums. It also features steel-pan artists, classical singing, and tassa drumming. ChutneyFest is most celebrated for its music and music competitions, bringing together international headlining acts as well as emerging new talent - all to one stage! Activities and features for all generations make this free, all-day family event in July a destination for not just West Indians, but anyone who loves music, dance, and fun. In 2020 & 2021, in response to COVID-19, CICF rapidly moved ChutneyFest to virtual delivery, moving its production to multi-site coordination so that it could still showcase talent from Brampton and the GTA to Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname, Holland and more, allowing audiences to still enjoy their favorite headliners from around the world. It brought a full day of events right into people's homes, reaching more audiences than ever before - double, in fact!

All the right beats!

The Indo-Caribbean culture has multiple dynamics, at ChutneyFest we make sure to hit every right note! On the ChutneyFest stage, we aim to play all types of music and showcase various instruments that are closely connected to the Indo-Caribbean community. At ChutneyFest there is a special focus on portraying the central-local talent we have right here in the GTA as well as bringing in foreign artists that epitomize the culture and really help our attendees feel connected the Indo-Caribbean music! We promise that our acts won't disappoint! In recent years we have included artists and bands such as The Band Destiny, Omardath Maraj, Dubraj Persad, Andaz Int, Terry Gajraj, Hemlata Dindial, Navin Yankarran, New Image Tassa, and so much more! With so much non-stop entertainment, you're sure to be encapsulated by Indo-Caribbean Music! CICF and ChutneyFest takes pride in working with the youth and upcoming musical generations of the community. Being able to help promote and showcase their talent as well as helping to develop their confidence is a key aspect of the overall mission of ChutneyFest. We display many forms of talent and music on the ChutneyFest Stage, ranging from tassa drumming, live bands, steel pan, and our annual singing competition! Each year ChutneyFest includes a competition for our local singers to go head-to-head in an entertaining and fierce battle to see who will be crowned the ChutneyFest Champion! If you reside in the GTA and would like to enter access our external criteria and registration form through the portal below, or by clicking on the "ChutneyFest Champion" header in the menu! For answers to any and all additional questions please contact us, all contact information can be found on our "contact us page", we are also available on social media which can be accessed at the bottom of the page!

Get up & Dance!

Dance is a huge contributor to the translation of Indo-Caribbean culture, it is an activity that many younger generations get involved in to better understand their culture, it promotes keeping the culture alive and concurrently assists the youth with growing connected to their Indo-Caribbean roots as well as becoming overall more confident. At ChutneyFest, there are many types of dances that are brought to the stage! Throughout the day of ChutneyFest, the constant entertainment on stage includes classical East-Indian dances, West-Indian Chutney dances, limbo dances, Latin fusion dances and much much more! For more information about our organization, send us a direct email at chutneyfest@gmail.com.