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!