July
9, 2006
Hello from Toronto – Partying at the
Celebrate Toronto Street Festival and Afrofest
So many festivals to choose from, so little time….. This
weekend Toronto had so many special events to offer, there simply
wasn’t enough time to attend them all. Here are just a few
samples of some of the major events offered on the July 7 to 9 weekend:
- Afrofest, a celebration of African culture, located at Queen’s
Park
- The Bud Light Beats, Breaks & Culture ,Toronto’s Electronic
Music Festival at Harbourfront Centre
- Italian food and lots of live music at the Corso Italia Toronto
Fiesta
- Toronto’s best known theatre festival: the Fringe of Toronto
Theatre Festival
- High-speed high-octane fun at the Molson Grand Prix of Toronto
at Exhibition Place
- The Canada Dry Festival of Fireworks at Ontario Place
- The Taste of Lawrence Festival on Lawrence Street East, and
- The Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition features more than 500 artists
at Nathan Phillips Square.
The number of choices is virtually endless and with limited time
it’s sometimes difficult to choose which event to attend.
I had a few hours today and decided to hop on my bike to check out
the Celebrate
Toronto Street Festival, and if there was any time left over
I would also drop by at Afrofest.
Equipped with my camera and a big backpack I cycled in through
Toronto’s ravine and park system. On my way in I was able
to almost completely avoid regular roads and enjoy the serenity
of some of Toronto’s many nature areas. In Sunnybrook Park
huge groups of people were unloading entire regular-sized barbecues
from their minivans for a day in the park. Through the tranquil
tree-framed streets of Leaside I made my way west to finally arrive
on Yonge Street, just north of Eglinton.
I love it: Toronto invites you to "walk on the grass"
It wasn’t quite noon yet and the big street party hadn’t
yet fully gotten off the ground. A variety of rides were set up
for kids and slowly but surely lineups started to form in front
of each high-adrenaline attraction. Various restaurants had set
up booths featuring samples of their menu at reasonable prices and
a big concert stage would showcase a variety of talent throughout
the day.
The rides are getting underway
I stopped at the Fit One booth which was going to hold a cheerleading
competition at 12 noon. An emcee picked out three moms and three
dads from the crowd. The moms were going to rehearse the Fit One
Cheer, while the men were learning a brief sequence of dance steps
that would be judged by the growing audience. The three men gave
it their best and the winning contestant added a few additional
flashy dance steps to his performance and definitely managed to
charm the crowd.
Then the ladies came on the stage and they got to perform their
cheer as a group and then individually. Again, the winner would
win a prize for their performance. With the amateur portion of this
contest complete, two young men and a young women came on to show
off their acrobatic cheerleading act. The two guys kept twirling
the girl around, lifting her up so she would stand upright on their
hands. They had had several years of training for this performance.
Acrobatics at the Fitness One stage
It was time for me to move on, and as I pushed my bike on the sidewalk,
I saw three generously proportioned “ladies” doing poses
and hamming it up. At one point one of them fell over with her legs
up in the air, and an audience member was asked to join in to help
her up. I am not quite sure if they were indeed ladies, but the
members of “Cie Colbok: “Niki” have been enchanting
crowds at street festivals in France, Germany, Spain, Great Britain
and many more with their flirtatious clowning around.
"Cie Colbok - Niki" are clowning around
My ride on Yonge Street, usually one of Toronto’s busiest
streets, was extremely peaceful and tranquil since the majority
of motorists had decided to avoid the Yonge Street corridor altogether
due to the street closures of the Celebrate
Toronto Street Festival. It’s a strangely empowering feeling
cycling down one of Toronto’s main thoroughfares without having
to worry about getting pushed off by sometimes inconsiderate drivers.
The "drumheads", Ela Lamblin and Leah Mann
St. Clair was the next festival location and the Scotiabank Big
Band Stage was going to feature a variety of jazz, big band and
even operetta music. I happened upon the highly unusual and innovative
performance of “Lelavision”, composed of Ela Lamblin
and Leah Mann - two musicians and performance artists from Seattle.
When I arrived they were wearing drums on their heads, hips and
knees and were performing a playful drumming act with one another.
Shortly after they pulled out an instrument called the "Violcano",
a cone-shaped metal drum equipped with strings, apparently a mixture
between a viola and a volcano. The two artists played the instrument
with strings, plucked it and even climbed in and out of it, adding
an element of physical acrobatics to this unusual way of producing
music.
Full-body music by Lelavision
Finally, they played the “Longwave”, a horizontal harp
with strings that are not plucked but brushed with gloved hands.
Some of the music even sounded like Irish folk music and the polyphonic
harmonies were very pleasing to the ear. This innovative combination
of music, unusual instruments, dance and physical performance was
highly extraordinary yet extremely aesthetic, and Lelavision attracted
a sizeable crowd of fans who stayed behind after the performance
to chat and find out more about this unique art form.
Inspired from this creative performance I got hungry and rode a
bit further south along Yonge Street until I landed at the Scotiabank
Jazz Café that featured a sitting area with tables, followed
by a variety of restaurant booths that were providing samples of
their cuisine. I ordered a butter chicken with basmati rice from
the Bombay Bhel restaurant and sat down to listen for a few minutes
to the pleasant sounds of the Donna Barber Trio. I joined a retired
gentleman at a table, who looked at my bike and started a pleasant
conversation about biking in the city. We both agreed that Toronto
offers superb biking opportunities all throughout the city. After
almost 50 years of marriage his wife had passed away last year,
but he has been working on adjusting to his new life and likes to
come out and enjoy Toronto’s outdoor festivals and events.
Just recently he had attended a free outdoor performance of the
Toronto Symphony Orchestra at Harbourfront. After I had finished
my lunch he said goodbye since he was going to catch a performance
at the Big Band Stage.
Improvsied comedy by the Monkey Toast Players
My next stop was at the "Comedy Stop", at a stage featuring
the “Monkey Toast Players”: Lisa Merchant (of “Train
48” fame), David Shore (an instructor at the Second City Training
Centre) and Carolyn Taylor (a Second City alumna). Together with
several other performers they make up an award-winning group of
standup comedians that performs regularly at the Drake Hotel. Today
they were performing a variety of improvised sketches that involved
various elements of audience participation. For one sketch two audience
members had to come on stage and finish the comedians’ sentence
on cue. For another sketch two audience members got to move the
comedians’ limbs and bodies to provide the physical backdrop
to the conversation. Finally, audience members got to choose a location
which would fit on the stage (“New York City”, I guess
if you try hard enough NYC will fit on the stage after all) and
they had written down a variety of phrases that the comedians had
to integrate into their performance which featured a scene involving
a hot dog vendor in New York City. The show was very much along
the lines of “Whose Line Is This Anyway?” and the crew’s
improvisational talents were quite impressive.
Afrofest - a big lawn party for everyone...
Now it was time to cycle further south so I went past Bloor Street,
where the sidewalks on the east and west side of Yonge Street really
started to fill up with regular shoppers and weekend revelers. I
went west on Wellesley until I hit my final destination: Queen’s
Park, which was hosting “Afrofest”, Toronto’s
celebration of African culture and music. The festival is in its
18th year and is now officially North America’s largest and
longest running African music festival. The audience was very colourful
and virtually every ethnic group in Toronto was represented in the
audience somewhere.
Enchanting the crowd on stilts
A big stage was designated for the feature performers and several
other areas were set up for drummers and other musicians. A multitude
of booths was selling African clothing, arts and crafts, and a big
area was dedicated to children that featured dance performances
and a variety of arts activities for children. Young ones were receiving
body paintings and a huge food court served a variety of tasty African
and Caribbean delicacies. I had a chat with several women from Congo
who were sitting together peeling and cutting plantains. Right next
door several young girls who originally came from Zambia and were
selling their local delicacies at a stand. The crowd had spread
out their blankets on the lawn and the festival was truly an event
for the whole family.
Body art
By about 4 pm it was time for me to head home and I started cycling
east on the Danforth. Traffic was fairly light, I guess many people
were glued to their television screens to watch the Soccer World
Cup finals between France and Italy. Sure enough, at about 4:30
pm I started to hear horns honking, people screaming with joy and
crowds streaming out of some of the cafes and bars on the eastern
part of the Danforth: Italy had won the World Cup!!!!! Hundreds
of people were coming out into the street, cheering, chanting “Italy”
and waving flags.
Proof after all, that Toronto’s vibrant multicultural mosaic
is alive and well, and everyone is invited to party….
Italy won!!!
Useful books about Toronto:
Related articles:
Toronto - A pretty
hip place
Toronto - Sights,
Culture, Shopping
Toronto - Festival,
parks, sports and recreation
Check out why I love Toronto
An interview with Doors Open
- Toronto's architecture festival
My visit to Doors
Open 2005
My visit to Toronto's 2005
Celebrate Toronto Festival
My visit to Doors Open 2006
Checking out the Taste
of Little Italy 2006
Sampling culinary treats at Summerlicious,
Toronto's 2006 restaurant festival
A tour through Toronto's historic
Saint Lawrence Market
An interview with Caribana,
Toronto's Caribbean festival
An interview with Pride
Toronto
An interview with the Toronto
Wintercity Festival
Images of Toronto during the winter
of 2006
Looking forward to my brother's
visit to Toronto
Hello from Toronto (2) - Exploring
the waterfront by bicycle and the CN Tower
Hello from Toronto (3) - Exploring
Niagara Wine Country and Niagara Falls
Hello from Toronto (4) - Exploring
Toronto's west end neighbourhoods
Hello from Toronto (5) - Novice golf,
exploring the Kawarthas, & a final bike ride
Here are my
reflections after my European visitors left
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