[CityPainter]

Now that the holidays are well enough over - I'm just going to come out and say it... While I've loved and adored the Christmas Market for the years I've lived in the area - I found this years edition nearly unbearable. I don't necessarily see that as a popular opinion, based on my sniffing around on social media for comments- but I thought I'd put it out there.

Everyone I know who lives near the Distillery shares your opinion. The crowds were bad in past years, but this year was by far the worst, and it impacts not only people who actually wish to attend the event, but also a large area around it in terms of heavy traffic, double-parking, frustrated drivers, and overloaded transit. The Distillery is simply not equipped or well-located to handle so many people at once. In past years I grumbled that so many seemed to drive in from the burbs instead of taking transit: but this year, as you mentioned, many did indeed seem to opt for transit and that actually made things even worse. The 504 was essentially unusable for me at my usual Sherbourne stop as the overloaded cars would just blow past without even stopping to open their doors, packed with people heading back to the subway from the Distillery -- like a bad rush hour, but in the middle of the day.

This problem is not unique to this event, of course, and it follows the arc of other festivals that grew too big to enjoy. Talk to anyone who lives near Taste of the Danforth or the Beaches Jazz Fest to see how they enjoy having their peaceful little residential neighbourhood conquered by a horde of millions for days on end every summer. Kensington Market locals detest the Pedestrian Sundays. And so on. It's a tough debate because I see both sides of the argument: I love living downtown because there's always stuff going on, and it's part of living in a vibrant city, but some events become so huge and go on for so long that they truly become unfairly disruptive to the lives of residents in the area.

I'm not sure what the solution to this problem is: I understand that the Christmas Market looks beautiful in the Distillery and that's the whole lure, but really, it would be probably be a lot more convenient to residents and attendees alike to set it up somewhere like Exhibition Place, where there is a vast amount of parking, easy highway access, and facilities designed to handle tens of thousands of simultaneous event visitors.

Personally, I think the festival organizers should be responsible for providing additional private shuttle services from the Distillery to transit points (like King Subway) at their own expense, or expense of ticket buyers. Because essentially, that's what the TTC routes around the district became during much of the festival. And we all know that the TTC is running well beyond capacity on a normal day, so pretending existing routes will handle all those extra people is silly. If the vendors and organizers of the market are profiting from the event (as I assume they are) it's unfair that taxpayers and locals should pay the cost (in money and time) to ferry their customers to and from a private event. This idea is not unprecedented: during Cask Days at the Evergreen Brickworks, for example, the organizers add private shuttle buses to augment the existing TTC buses because they know the capacity will not be met.

 

[slicecom]

Now that the holidays are well enough over - I'm just going to come out and say it... While I've loved and adored the Christmas Market for the years I've lived in the area - I found this years edition nearly unbearable. I don't necessarily see that as a popular opinion, based on my sniffing around on social media for comments- but I thought I'd put it out there.

All in all, I felt that they cut the food options from prior years, with higher prices. The sponsorships were obtrusive (a surprise visit from a two-storey inflatable elf in direct view of residents), and it felt as though it was an overcrowded mess at times.

Big kudos to the Distillery/Market staff who managed to keep the area as clean and orderly as they did btw.

It seems as though this year, it was a victim of its own success. At times, organizers had to limit entrants due to overcrowding - transit could barely handle the overload (The 172a bus started to become an express from Yonge, as drivers refused to stop in between), and while parking for visitors was terrible, more than a few residents I know fought for 45min to get from Parliament to their underground parking spots.

As a resident myself, I have in the past enjoyed taking a walk around every few days, just to take in the atmosphere - by the end of the first week - I couldn't bring myself to fight the crowds anymore and avoided it.

I'm sure the event is a big money maker for the area - but after this years edition, I was left wondering what - if anything could be done to mitigate these issues (notwithstanding the idea that hey, maybe I'm the only grinch here).

It's possible that in the near future, we'll see the south parking lot area lost to development - BUT we'll be gaining more neighbours and open streets in the Canary District. And if plans for a park next to the Data Centre stay true - Is the idea to expand the geography of the market? maybe close Mill from Trinity to Cherry to move some booths.

Anyhow, just putting that out there.

It's definitely reached a ridiculous level of popularity now. The whole surrounding area was overwhelmed with people heading to and from the distillery and the event itself was so crowded it was hard to enjoy at all. A victim of its own success I suppose. All I can say is I'm glad I don't live in the Distillery itself, that must have been a nightmare for residents.

 

[JasonParis]

SmartTrack and the Cherry Street / WWE streetcar extensions should help, but both are between 2 and 7/10 years off.

 

[NorthYorkEd]

SmartTrack and the Cherry Street / WWE streetcar extensions should help, but both are between 2 and 7/10 years off.

Which in Toronto time is probably more like 15-20 years, after several cancellations, re-visiting, re-studying, re-starting, and then millions in cost over-runs.

 

[PinkLucy]

I agree that the Christmas Market is a victim of its own success. And taal, you're right about not even having room to get a wallet out. It would be interesting to hear from the merchants.

We were on our way home from somewhere and thought we'd stop in but we couldn't find parking anywhere close, so we decided to walk over the the next day instead

 

[DSC]

Yes, festivals can out-grow their roots. I too like the Christmas Market but this years version was very crowded - even in what had previously been non-peak periods. The St Lawrence neighbourhood could no longer handle Buskerfest (so it moved to Yonge) and the Woofstock Festival (that started in the Distillery) moved first to St Lawrence and will next be at the Ex. Maybe the Christmas Market also needs to 'move on' - but to where?

 

[Skeezix]

The Christmas Market is put on by the Distillery. It isn't moving anywhere. It will continue at its present location as long as it benefits the Distillery's tenants.

 

[jxmyth_]

I really think it's a catch-22, because the unique nature of the distillery is what separates the event from all the others. If you moved the event to anywhere else in the city, you would essentially have the One of a Kind Show, or the Union Station Christmas Market etc. That's not to say that people wouldn't flock to such an event - but still.

I've wondered about the event becoming ticketed, and although I don't like the idea of essentially privatizing a public event, have to figure that this would serve to control numbers. Though it would also serve to be a nuisance to residents as well.

Maybe make the event all about the booze, to discourage families - or drop the boozy parts to encourage only families. Again, at a loss here.

I do think that a private shuttle to and from union would be a great idea, as I overheard a lot of visitors ask for directions back to union, but I'm not sure if that will cut the reliance on the already overcrowded king streetcar. And yeah, parking wise - things will prove to only get worse if and when the south parking lot and construction parking lot go into development, nevermind the "whiskey beach" proposal on Lakeshore. Does anyone know how much permanent public parking is to be available in Canary?

I also did wonder about how other neighbourhoods handled such events as Taste of the Danforth or Pride. Though I don't think theres been too much to mitigate issues. They've maybe elongated Pride's takeover of Church st in recent years mind you. Which is why I think pushing the event out onto Mill or closing Cherry could be options. We've already seen the area without Cherry being open, and that would have a streetcar come down and loop right where booths would be

And its funny that someone brought up the "too crowded to pull out your wallet" factor. I had remarked to a friend during the market that folks must be making crazy money - to which they replied "there were line ups to get into the stores, but not necessarily line ups at the cash registers"

In any case, like I said before - loved the event, just not so much in its recent incarnation. Glad to hear other people equally concerned about managing its growth

 

[Skeezix]

I really think it's a catch-22, because the unique nature of the distillery is what separates the event from all the others. If you moved the event to anywhere else in the city, you would essentially have the One of a Kind Show, or the Union Station Christmas Market etc. That's not to say that people wouldn't flock to such an event - but still.

Agreed. I suspect that over the next Christmas or two, we will see a lot more "Christmas markets" pop up in various GTA locales, given the success of the Distillery version, much like there was for a time a rash of "Taste of [insert name of street/neighbourhood]" events awhile back mimicking the Danforth. There are some spots that might even be able to replicate the amibience to a degree (say, old Unionville or somewhere like that), but most of them will have all the charm of a flea market.

I've wondered about the event becoming ticketed, and although I don't like the idea of essentially privatizing a public event, have to figure that this would serve to control numbers. Though it would also serve to be a nuisance to residents as well.

It already is a private event on private land. It's open to the general public, but would presumably remain so even if members of the public needed to buy tickets beforehand in order to keep a handle on numbers. But I agree that any ticketing would be more of a nuisance than it would be worth, and would be disruptive for Distillery tenants.

 

[ChesterCopperpot]

the Woofstock Festival (that started in the Distillery) moved first to St Lawrence and will next be at the Ex.

Really? That will be a shame - I thought the location at Woodbine Park was excellent last year.

 

[JasonParis]

I think the best way to handle this is to have a competing Christmas market. Perhaps at Nathan Phillips Square or maybe Trinity Bellwoods. Or both! Many European cities have more than one.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

I think the best way to handle this is to have a competing Christmas market. Perhaps at Nathan Phillips Square or maybe Trinity Bellwoods. Or both! Many European cities have more than one.

That wouldn't be a bad idea at all - also having the event hemmed within the relatively space-limited Distillery doesn't help, when it could have been spread out more. In fact it would be quite neat if it can be held in the SLM/Esplanade/Distillery "axis", with "themed" markets/kid zones along the way.

AoD

 

[AndreaPalladio]

I thought it was the best year ever for it in terms of vendors and food, though it did get crowded as it went on. And it had a weekend more than last year I think. Maybe they could spread it out more, to run up Trinity Street, or even into the surface parking lot.

 

[grey]

That wouldn't be a bad idea at all - also having the event hemmed within the relatively space-limited Distillery doesn't help, when it could have been spread out more. In fact it would be quite neat if it can be held in the SLM/Esplanade/Distillery "axis", with "themed" markets/kid zones along the way.

AoD

I love the idea of stretching it along the Esplanade. It's probably our most German street in terms of design and scale.

 

[Skeezix]

Interesting idea, but it will never happen. Putting aside the practical difficulties (try getting permits to close street for 3+ weeks, on a street with long stretches that are primarily residential, for an event that is busiest at night - the "streets" in the Distillery are all private), the CM exists to draw people to the Distillery. While the Distillery would likely benefit from expanding the CM to St. Lawrence/The Esplanade, if the historic/commercial core of those areas were across the street from the Distillery, the areas are likely too far apart from one other. Why would the Distillery extend its market to a competing historic commercial area which is fairly distant from the Distillery and is closer to transit/downtown/parking than the Distillery, when the primary objective of the CM is to get people to the Distillery?