Hello From Toronto – Partying At The Celebrate Toronto
Street Festival And Afrofest
Author: Susanne Pacher

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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….


About The Author: Susanne Pacher is the publisher of
http://www.travelandtransitions.com, a web portal for
unconventional travel & cross-cultural connections. Check out
our brand new FREE ebooks about travel.