[Archivist]

OK, well, I'll respond with my bugbear on this, and say that one of my issues has been that festivals anywhere but Toronto get funded like crazy by the feds (often under regional development grants), while here there is little funding. This snippet from a Globe article from a few days ago highlights the problem.

There is genuine enthusiasm for Mr. Fortier's candidacy among Montrealers of all political stripes. ... The Tories are anti-culture? Tell that to the folks at the Montreal International Jazz Festival or the city's Just for Laughs fest. Mr. Fortier fought for and won a five-fold increase in federal funding for each.

 

[Urban Shocker]

The annual Running of the Slush festival in mid-February - all those nicely-dressed young men racing the garbage trucks up Yonge Street - is still my favourite.

 

[CDL.TO]

I have to be my normal disagreeable self and argue that perhaps there are already too many big festivals in Toronto, especially in the summer. Some of the most popular ones like Beaches Jazz Fest, Taste of the Danforth and Buskerfest are now so enormous and crowded that they are exercises in endurance. Battling the crowds for views, food, water, and porta-potty access becomes exhausting after a while. My wife and I now plan our summer weekends by where the festivals aren't so we don't get caught in a crush of 12 thousand festival goers when all we want to do is buy a loaf of bread or something.

Very true. These festivals have gotten very popular, but are still being constrained to the same venues they have always used. Maybe it's time to EXPAND these festivals in the area that they cover.

Taste of the Danforth all the way to Greenwood or Coxwell?
Expand Beaches Jazz into Ashbridge's Bay Park? Merge Beaches Jazz with Downtown Jazz to create a bigger Jazz fest, spread across larger number of venues?

 

[Mustapha]

My wife and I now plan our summer weekends by where the festivals aren't so

haha, my old lady and I do this too

 

[Secret Agent]

Toronto certainly doesn't need any more festivals. What it needs to do, is capitalize on the larger(Pride, Caribana, TIFF) successful ones.

Why should an event, such as Pride, be content with a million spectators/visitors every year?? Why not try and attract 1.5 - 2 million. There is next to little marketing when it comes to these events. During my numerous visits to American midwestern cities, many are shocked, dumbfounded and sometimes speechless that Toronto could host such large festivals. Very few know or heard of the TIFF.
There may be measures in which such events are marketed that I may not be aware nor familiar with, but I certainly get the impression the funding is not where it should be nor are these festivals reaching their full potential.
These festivals are gold mines for the city.

 

[Hydrogen]

Merge Beaches Jazz with Downtown Jazz to create a bigger Jazz fest, spread across larger number of venues?

I like that idea in principle, but one things about the smaller Jazz festivals in Toronto is that they feel more spontaneous than the huge Montreal Jazz Festival.

 

[Tewder]

OK, well, I'll respond with my bugbear on this, and say that one of my issues has been that festivals anywhere but Toronto get funded like crazy by the feds (often under regional development grants), while here there is little funding. This snippet from a Globe article from a few days ago highlights the problem.

There is genuine enthusiasm for Mr. Fortier's candidacy among Montrealers of all political stripes. ... The Tories are anti-culture? Tell that to the folks at the Montreal International Jazz Festival or the city's Just for Laughs fest. Mr. Fortier fought for and won a five-fold increase in federal funding for each.

This is unfortunately the sad fate of Toronto. The Conservatives don't spend money here because there is no voter payback, and the Liberals don't spend money here because they know they'll nab votes regardless... and Quebec endlessly reaps the rewards.

 

[Urban Shocker]

I wonder when we'll reach the point where enough people ( not just the tip of the iceberg on this forum ) get so sick of the mushrooming BIA-sponsored shopping festivals posing as cultural events - such as Buy Up The Danforth - that they scale back on them?

 

[egotrippin]

There is next to little marketing when it comes to these events. During my numerous visits to American midwestern cities, many are shocked, dumbfounded and sometimes speechless that Toronto could host such large festivals. Very few know or heard of the TIFF.

Well it is the midwest. Most of them are probably shocked to hear that Canada even has large cities.

 

[Tewder]

I wonder when we'll reach the point where enough people ( not just the tip of the iceberg on this forum ) get so sick of the mushrooming BIA-sponsored shopping festivals posing as cultural events - such as Buy Up The Danforth - that they scale back on them?

Agreed, and one is pretty much identical to another so why bother going?

 

[TrickyRicky]

I disagree US and Tewder. There is a place for small local festivals and block parties. Infact it is these very events that provide regular people with the most enjoyment and foster grass roots community identity and participation. The more of these events the more likely that some will evolve to a higher order. I'm right with you on the fact that they are to a large extent identical and void of orginal content. But to suggest in some manner that the city would be better off if people did not attend or participate or organize these events is absurd.

I also fail to understand the underlying strain of antaganism towards BIAs and neighbourhood organizations you can pick out of comments like that previous one you made US. So what if the ulterior motive of merchants and community busy-bodies such as on the Danforth is to try to stimulate activity and business on their main strips. Heaven forbid that the city become more vibrant and civically engaged!

 

[Urban Shocker]

Even when it began as a small event in the early '90s, known mostly to locals, Buy Up The Danforth didn't foster much grass roots identity since it was transparently about commerce and little else. As Mustapha, Puke Green and fiendish indicate, many local residents head for the hills when these consumerfest juggernauts roll around every year and tout le 905 ( or whoever these people are ) descend en masse on the nabe du jour. I think the second, corporately-sponsored, Scotiabank Nuit Blanche was less of a cultural phenomenon than the first; I fear it may become a cross between Halloween and Buy Up The Danforth and based on numbers of people turning out rather than the quality of the art. I think there's a great hunger for collective experiences in Toronto, and a tendency to dumb things down for populist commercial success. But, yes, I think block parties are great ( and rare ) when they happen.

 

[adma]

Actually, I went to TOTD for the first time in years, this year, on opening evening. Quite enjoyed it, for the mass middle-class spectacleness.

I bought nothing but a tub of Turkish delight, though. (I wasn't hungry.)

 

[lordmandeep]

well our festivals become greater every year.


TIFF dominated entertainment news in Canada for two weeks.

Likely pissed off people in Vancouver.

 

[TrickyRicky]

US, I don't think we need to be scared of consumerism or 905ers, only unimpressive content and the loss of focused objectives if a festival is themed. On that note I agree with you that Nuit Blanche Scotiabank addition was less strong then the previous year. That said I don't really think it had much to do with Scotiabank. Put simply I think the quality of art installation was largely rubbish. Sure maybe I'm no art expert but I found most of the content, partricularly that coming from young Toronto based artists, basically grade 11 art class level. That would be fine if it was grade 11 artists displaying. Even the art galleries and museums took a half-assed approach to the affair. So take that as an example, the problem with Nuit Blanche seems to be weak, un-original content, not creeping corporatization or 905 barbarian hords at the gate.