festival | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘festival’

South Asian Festival

Posted: July 24, 2017 in events, people
Tags: bangles, Bollywood, clothes, elephant, families, festival, hands, jewellry, kids, Little India, mannequin, people, performance, photos, posing, sarees, shopping, street, sugar cane, yoga

Toronto in the summer means street festivals every weekend. One of the festivals this past weekend was the 15th annual South Asian Festival in ‘Little India’. Gerrard Street East was closed to traffic between Greenwood and Coxwell for the occasion.

below: Shopping, strolling and playing games. Try your skill at cricket or buy some jewellery or some clothing.

Like all street festivals, there was lots of food and drink available.

below: Extracting sugar cane juice.

below: Fresh baked naan, straight from the oven.

There were many photo ops provided. For instance, there were cut outs for faces in pictures of Bollywood actors.

… and a richly decorated cart (What is it’s proper name?)

and mannequins in traditional costumes.

below: There was also entertainment. In this case, a rapper in Hindi and English.

… and there was even a large elephant parked beside Victoria Whole Foods! It looks a bit tacky with the big advertising banner on its side but it was still a popular place to take selfies.

that big yellow duck

Posted: July 6, 2017 in events, waterfront
Tags: #Canada150, #whattheduck, 150th birthday, cameras, Canada 150, Canada Day, festival, HTO beach, kids, Lake Ontario, people, rubber ducky, sand, selfies, waterfront, weekend, yellow duck, yellow umbrellas

Maybe you thought that the duck was a waste of money or maybe you thought the duck was a fantastic idea. Maybe you didn’t like the duck because it wasn’t Canadian enough for a Canada Day celebration (the Canaduck!) or maybe you didn’t care about such things. It certainly generated a lot of discussion even before it arrived – who hasn’t heard about the duck? Who didn’t have an opinion about the duck? It spawned the hashtag #whattheduck, a play on WTF.

The noise has now all died down. The 150th birthday party is over.

I don’t think that I am alone in thinking that the duck was the star of the Redpath Waterfront Festival and that the festival organizers have no regrets about spending the money on the duck.

below: The yellow duck was moored by HTO beach (that’s the one with the yellow umbrellas) for the duration of the July 1st long weekend. It smiled through rain and shine.

below: It was a popular duck and it attracted about a million people. People of all ages. It was about 6 storeys tall so even if you couldn’t get close to it, you could still get a good view.

below: Millions of photos were taken with (and of) the duck. It was a willing subject and it stayed still – it was good at holding a pose. The trick was to get a selfie that didn’t have lots of other people in it! He was a bit grubby – maybe too big for a bathtub? – but no one cared.

below: Not everyone was excited to see the duck!

below: One last look at the duck. On Monday evening the duck was towed across Toronto Harbour to the Port Lands where it was deflated and readied to be sent to Owen Sound for the next port of call on its Ontario tour.

Cosmopolis, Myseum Intersections

Posted: March 7, 2017 in events, galleries
Tags: #myseumTO, #myseumX, Colin Boyd Shafer, Cosmopolis, countries, diverse, exhibit, festival, global, immigrants, Myseum, Myseum Intersections, people, photography, photos, portraits, stories, world

Myseum of Toronto is a fairly new addition to the cultural fabric of the city. It is a museum without walls. It is an organization that helps deliver programming to different locations in the GTA. Last night, March 6, at City Hall, Myseum of Toronto launched its second annual festival of events and exhibitions. This festival, Myseum Intersections, consists of 36 different events and exhibits spread around the city throughout the month of March. “One Toronto. Infinite Perspectives” is the motto of this year’s festival.

In keeping with that motto is an exhibit called ‘Cosmopolis Toronto: The World in One City’. It was showcased at the Myseum Intersections launch party. A few months ago it was on display at 18 libraries around the city but it has been brought together in one exhibit for the festival. At the moment it can be seen on the ground floor of City Hall but it will also spend some time at Metro Hall and then end the month at the North York Civic Center. (schedule at the bottom of the post).

“Cosmopolis” consists of a series of portraits and interviews by Colin Boyd Shafer. The goal was to find a person from every country in the world who now calls Toronto home, hence its tagline “Photographing the world, one Torontonian at a time”. I am not sure if that goal was attained, but the series is a fascinating look at a very diverse group of people.

Two photos were taken of each person. The first was a portrait taken in a Toronto location where they felt “at home”. The second was of an object that they felt connected them to their country of birth.

The Cosmopolis website has more information as well as the portraits and stories of many more new Torontonians.

***

EXHIBITION DATES & TIMES:
MARCH 5 – 8 & 13 – 19
MONDAY – FRIDAY, 8:30AM – 4:30PM
City Hall
100 Queen St W, Toronto

MARCH 9 – 12
MONDAY – FRIDAY, 7:30 AM – 9:30 PM
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, 8AM – 6PM
Metro Hall
55 John St, Toronto

MARCH 20 – APRIL 2
MONDAY – FRIDAY, 7:30AM – 9:30PM
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, 8AM – 6PM
North York Civic Centre
5100 Yonge St, Toronto

#myseumTO | #myseumX

Festival of India parade

Posted: July 18, 2016 in events
Tags: chanting, chariot, clapping, colours, crowd, dancing, families, festival, India, kids, men, parade, people, pulling, ropes, sarees, Toronto, walking, women, Yonge St.

Many people walked and danced, clapped and chanted, as they paraded down Yonge Street on Saturday to start the annual Festival of India weekend.

The parade is similar to an annual procession (Ratha Yatra) that has occurred for centuries in the city of Puri, India as part of a Hindu festival associated with the god Jagannath. Here in Toronto, as in Puri, three chariots constructed to look like temples are pulled through the streets in a procession from one temple to another. Each chariot carries a richly decorated representation of a god, first is Jagannatha (another name for Krishna or God) and then his brother Baladeva and his sister Subhadra. The chariots are pulled by people and the procession symbolizes the pulling of the Lord into our hearts.

In Puri, this Ratha-Yatra procession continues to attract over a million people every year. In Toronto, the numbers aren’t quite that high!

big pictures on Spadina

Posted: April 30, 2016 in events, public art
Tags: art, black and white, CONTACT, downtown, Drape, enlarged, event, festival, Globe and Mail, photographs, photos, public art, Scotiabank CONTACT, Stenram

May is photography month in Toronto. It is the month when there are numerous exhibits in public spaces and in galleries, all part of the CONTACT Photography Festival. Over the next few weeks I hope to visit many of the exhibits and blog about some of them. From past experience I have discovered that a lot of the public installations appear before May 1st so I went exploring yesterday.

below: Looking south from Spadina and Adelaide…. Partially obscured by a building, on the right in this photo, is the first large black and white photo that I saw.

below: Up close, ‘Drape’ by Eva Stenram. Stenram has taken a 1960’s pin-up photograph of a woman and manipulated it. She has brought the background, the drapery, forward and has covered up the original subject in the picture.

below: Looking west on Wellington from Spadina. The light grey building is the Old Press Hall (Globe and Mail) which will be demolished in the near future.

below: Up close, ‘Stopping Point’ by an unknown photographer. The original title and description was: ‘Along the new Highway, which runs from Smooth Rock Falls to Fraserdale, Ontario, there’s no sign of human habitation apart from one empty lumber camp, c.1966.

The above photograph is one of 750,000 photos in the Globe and Mail’s picture library. 100,000 of their old photos are being digitized to create a new historical archive. From these, a collection of 20,000 prints will be donated to the newly formed Canadian Photography Institute at the National Gallery of Canada.

More of the photos from the Globe and Mail’s collection are on view inside the Old Press Hall.

buskerfest 2015

Posted: September 2, 2015 in events, people
Tags: acrobatics, balancing, buskers, clapping, Close Act, crowds, drums, eating fire, entertainment, families, festival, Fireguy, fun, funny, hats, kids, laughing, MaracaTALL, meow mur, mime, mirror family, mirrors, Mr T Oz, music, people, performances, performers, Pierre St. Pierre, pogo stick, rope, roses, sauruses, shows, stilts, tricks, Wacky Chad, yo yo, yo-yo guy

Toronto International Buskerfest for Epilepsy, 2015,
over 70 acts from Canada and around the world.

Yonge Street, College to Queen,
28th Aug through 31st Aug

below: The Funnykito Show, Dan Marques is a performer from Brazil, part magician, part mime and part clown. Here he sets up a trick whereby he tries to remove a beer bottle from the hands of a volunteer with a whip.

below: MaracaTALL, drummers on stilts

below: There were four or five members of the Mirror Family roaming around Yonge Dundas Square. They were covered from head to toe with small pieces of mirror.

below: Meow Mur, a cosmic cat from another planet

below: Max T. Oz

below: Brant the Fireguy has a burning desire to entertain and does so with his ‘O Yeah’ show.

below: Pierre St. Pierre

below: Buskerfest helps to support Epilepsy Toronto; it is their largest fund raiser.

below: Lulu’s World, where a black marker and some tissue paper helps to bring a story to life.

below: Upside down on the rope, Natural Wings

below: Wacky Chad, pogo sticks, dance moves, little bikes, and more

below: Alakazam, throwing knives and other sharp objects as his show’s finale

below: Pyromancer, fire breather, entertains the crowd.

below: Taking turns conducting a small string orchestra

below: Giant Sauruses wander Yonge Dundas Square looking for food. They are part of Close Act Theatre Group from the Netherlands.

below: The Yo-Yo Guy, John Higby, performs.

below: Part of his act involves removing a coin from behind the ear of a volunteer with a spinning yo-yo.

Chinatown Festival

Posted: August 25, 2015 in events
Tags: asian, Chinatown, Chinese, crowds, dance, downtown, dragon, entertainment, festival, food, music, outdoor, people, Spadina Ave., squid, Toronto, twisted potato

A summer in Toronto is a summer of small festivals all over the city. This past weekend, a part of Spadina was closed to traffic to make way for the Chinatown Festival.

There were dragons,

food,

demonstrations and shows,

Muay thai demonstration

Two girls wearing shiny red dresses and gold and silver boots perform a dance on an outdoor stage. The audiencee is in the background

dancers from M. Dance school

magician Stephen Cheung shows a deck of cards at an outdoor show

Stephen Cheung, magician

A chinese woman sings on an outdoor stage at the Chinatown festival on Spadina Ave

Angel Cheng, singer

as well as vendors and booths

members of the Toronto Chinese Baptist church making music, singers, accordian, and guitar player

music by members of the Toronto Chinese Baptist Church

Panorama India

Posted: August 19, 2015 in events
Tags: 16 August, 69th, anniversary, back, banners, Eaton Centre, festival, flags, flowers, gold, independence day, India, jewellry, Kashmir, parade, protest, shiny, Sikhs, Yonge Dundas Square

Sunday 16th August was the 69th anniversary of India’s independence. Celebrations here in Toronto included Panorama India, a festival at Yonge Dundas Square.

There was a small but energetic and colorful parade on the streets around the Eaton Center.

The festival also featured vendors, music and speeches.

A few protesters waved flags and and carried signs and banners protesting against the Indian army’s presence in Kashmir. They stood on the sidewalk across the street from the festival.