Soul Food Caribbean Festival expands to Canada with Capleton, Gyptian

Soul Food Caribbean Festival is taking its next big step outside Jamaica with “Fire in the Park,” a Canada Day edition set for Wednesday, July 1, 2026, at 50 Esna Park Drive in Markham, Ontario. The show is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., and the booking of Capleton, Gyptian and D’Yani gives the bill real range, from veteran firebrand energy to a younger crossover pull. For reggae fans, Capleton’s appearance carries extra weight: it marks his first Canadian stage performance in 16 years.

Behind the move is Fabian Cole, better known as Boomas, and his wife, Shakeria Campbell Cole, who have built the Soul Food brand from Soul Food Tuesdays in Jamaica into a full festival concept. The idea is not just to export a party. It is to package reggae, soul, food and Caribbean atmosphere as a single experience that can travel with the diaspora. That model has already staged successfully in England and Canada, and the Markham date shows the couple is leaning into markets where that blend has proved it can draw.

The Canada push makes sense on the numbers alone. Statistics Canada says 249,070 people in Canada reported Jamaican roots in the 2021 Census, a built-in audience that gives Jamaican-rooted music and food events a deep lane to work with. Markham adds another layer of logic: the city describes itself as the most diverse city in Canada and actively promotes community events and public park rentals, the kind of civic setup that helps a festival brand scale beyond a one-off concert.

Cole’s ambitions do not stop at Ontario. He has talked about taking the festival to cities like New York and Los Angeles, while keeping a Jamaican edition on the roadmap. That is the real story here: Soul Food Caribbean Festival is evolving from a homegrown party into a broader cultural platform, one that can meet reggae and soul audiences where they already live. With Capleton, Gyptian and D’Yani on a Canada Day card in Markham, the brand is testing how far a Jamaican festival identity can travel when it is built around music, food and the pull of Caribbean belonging.