It was a little less but the reality is the difference between 1.4 mill and 1.2 mill wont stop you from being suffocated from the crowds lol.
The festival itself continues to have a major identity crisis, billed as Toronto’s largest Greek street party yet the entertainment year on year becomes less Greek, can anyone explain what business a miss Asia contest has at this festival? If I’m at a Chinatown festival I don’t expect to see a miss Athens competition. Most of the stuff you see has nothing to do with danforth culture, both new and old. Why isn’t the Greek stage at Logan which is the central part of Greektown? Instead they dump the Greek performers to a tiny stage at Jones Ave away from where most of the Greek businesses are.
I was at a few of the cafes along pape and all the Greeks I spoke to cringe at what the taste has become compared to its early days when it was a proper Greek festival and the crowds were manageable, the organisers would bring a singer from Greece to perform a free concert on the Saturday night, something they haven’t done for about 6 years. When over a million are turning up the organisers probably don’t care but the fact is the community this festival is meant to represent most have turned away from it and pretty much consider it an embarrassment to their culture. I lasted 30 minutes before I gave up and walked up to pape village, all I saw was the usual gimmicky Greek stuff like plate smashing contests.
I don’t want to come across like a sooking Greek, I’m a big advocate for multiculturalism and absolutely love that the non Greek businesses have always been allowed to take part in this, but the fact is the danforth deserves a real cultural Greek festival. A large portion of the entertainment has gone too far the other way, ultimately you have a festival that now pretty much means nothing. If the strip didn’t have so many Greek restaurants the Greek aspect of it would be completely dead, credit to them for trying to provide a bit atmosphere and providing the Greek entertainment, that doesn’t excuse the organisers though who have turned the entire thing into a gimmick fest,