music | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘music’

buskerfest 2014

Posted: August 26, 2014 in events, people
Tags: #samsungsbbf, Ariel, art, balloons, buskers, chalk, chalk chick, clowns, crowds, dogs, DyneMike, entertainment, epilepsy toronto, great dane, littlest mermaid, music, ninja turtles, people, performances, photos, ponies, screech, Screeched Inn, shows, sidewalk, silver Elvis, smiles, stilts, street performers, toast, Toronto, touch2catch, Yonge St.

Buskerfest 2014

Yonge Street was closed from College to Queen for the event.

Yonge St. at Dundas, barrier across Yonge St. as it is pedestrians only. Lots of signs, lots of people,

Yonge Street on the Saturday afternoon of Buskerfest, looking north from Dundas Street

A man dressed in green is on stilts as he walks up Yonge St.

Hovering above the crowd.

There were street performers……

A group of four people are on stilts but dressed in very long pants. Two are playing a drum and two are playing shaking instruments. They are walking down Yonge St. People are on the sidewalks watching them. Street performance as part of buskerfest.

towering over the audience as they walk down Yonge Street

A performer is on a very tall unicycle. He is juggling lit torches as he slowly goes around in a tight circle.

DyneMike, playing with fire on high

A street performer is using a diabolo to entertain a crowd of people who are sitting and standing on the sidewalk around him.

This guy, part of Touch2Catch, was amazing to watch. Great diabolo action!

A performer has been launched into the air. He is holding a large ring that is on fire. He is turning himself through the ring while in the air.

more Touch2Catch – jumping through a ring of fire

One of the street performers from the group Touch2Catch is doing a side flip over a man who is on all fours on the street.

side flip over Dimitri

A picture of buskerfest is displayed on an electronic billboard.

Samsung was putting tweets and instagram postings with their buskerfest hashtag on the electronic billboard above Yonge & Dundas. At one point I looked up and saw this one. A great photo! She captured an unobscured view of the exact moment the performer from Touch2Catch did a side flip over five people.

A woman has taken the silver guitar from Silver Elvis and is pretending to play it while hamming it up for the small group of people that are watching.

sharing the limelight with Silver Elvis …. or taking over? All in good fun!

A woman is having her picture taken with a performer who is dressed in a white dress made of balloons. She has balloon wings and white feathers in her hair.

Photo op with an angel in white balloons. Balloon dresses are available from The Twisted Ones

A street performer is twisting the upper part of his body in order to fit it through a tennis racquet.

What one does in the name of entertainment – putting one’s shoulders through a tennis racquet…. don’t try it at home kids.

….. music

A toast to the cod, screeching in at Dundas Square. The Screeched Inn performed on the stage at Yonge-Dundas Square, their “kitchen party”.

All money raised by performers on the stage at Yonge-Dundas Square went to Epilepsy Toronto.
In addition, Samsung donated $1 to Epilepsy Toronto for every tweet of buskerfest that included the hashtag #samsungsbbf

….. sidewalk artists

A woman is using chalk to make a large picture of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the sidewalk

ninja turtles taking shape on the sidewalk (artist: the Chalk Chick)

A chalk drawing of Ariel, the little mermaid in the Disney movie on a sidewalk. A man's legs are also in the photo.

Ariel, Disney’s little mermaid is on the sidewalk. Another drawing by the Chalk Chick.

… and curious kids, entertained kids

Some children are watching buskers perform by peeking through a gap in the red and white plastic banners that are the backdrop to the show.

vantage point

A dog, a Great Dane, is standing in front of two women dressed as clowns on pink and white ponies. The dog has barked at them and they are reacting by making faces and moving back

Some dogs don’t like clowns either. Great Danes have quite the bark!

A large electronic billboard high above Yonge St. A picture of one of my buskerfest tweets is being displayed.

a narcissistic moment

With thanks to the Second Cup on Mt. Pleasant where I hung out while putting this blog entry together.

And the band played on

Posted: August 10, 2013 in events
Tags: band, camera, Dundas Square, iphone, Lemon Bucket Orkestra, music, photographer, Toronto, Yonge Dundas Square

The original plan was to visit Dundas Square for their 10th birthday party. Love it or hate it, Dundas Square is now ten years old. Maybe one day I’ll call it by it’s proper name, Yonge Dundas Square. I was going to do a blog post on the events of the evening.

The official party was to start at 7:00. One of the opening acts was the Lemon Bucket Orkestra; their website describes them as a balkan klezmer gypsy party punk superband. During the last song that they played, they moved through the square towards the stage.

And this is where I changed course. Most people made room for the musicians, moved out of their way. But not one “photographer”. He stood his ground; he got up close and personal photos on his phone. My focus shifted from the music to the man in the middle.

Was he intrusive? Should he have moved?

If you want to know more about the Lemon Bucket Orkestra: http://www.lemonbucket.com/

man with an iphone standing in front of the Lemon Bucket Orkestra as they walk through Dundas Square.

first photo

man taking pictures of a group of musicians, a drummer, a clarinet player, some violins and a flugelhorn

second photo

third photo

man is standing in the middle of a group of musicians, the Lemon Bucket Orkestra, as it walks through Dundas Square.

last photo

Nathan Phillips Square on a sunny long week-end

Posted: August 7, 2013 in events, locations
Tags: archer, August, dancing, irie, irie festival, live music, music, Nathan Phillips, people, performance, reggae, Samba Squad, summer, sunshine, Toronto, tourists

This year the long August week-end (Aug 3, 4 and 5) was warm and sunny. Like most summer week-ends in Toronto, there was lots going on. On both Sunday and Monday afternoon I dropped by the IRIE festival at Nathan Phillips Square.

people watching a performance at Nathan Phillips Square on a sunny afternoon

There was a small but appreciative crowd at Nathan Phillips Square on Sunday afternoon for the IRIE festival.

Samba Squad, a group of musicians, performs on stage.

Samba Squad performing on Sunday afternoon.

4 men dancing on a stage. they are wearing green pants and white sleeveless T-shirts.

They were called the TD dancers and they were one of the opening acts on Monday afternoon.

A man and a woman dancing. The woman has long hair that is bouncing around as she moves.

Their performance was twelve minutes of non-stop, high energy movement.

Seeking shade and a place to rest.

Two Asian male photographers and their cameras with very long lenses taking pictures of a performance on the stage at Nathan Phillips Square.

There were not a lot of cameras clicking away during the performances that I saw. One exception were the four men with their long lenses that stopped by for a few minutes, took some photos, and left. I thought of African safaris as I watched them.

A girls wearing a light blue jacket is standing beside the pool at Nathan Phillips Square while her mother takes her picture. The mother is wearing light blue pants and is holding a light blue umbrella.

Photo op in light blue.

Nathan Phillips Square from the south, showing one of the arches over the fountain. Some vendors are there as well as some tourists and other people enjoying the sunny afternoon.

There were also a few vendors selling food & drink, clothing, and jewelry. Mostly it was a pleasant way to spend some time on a sunny summer afternoon.

Streetfest – Beaches Jazz Festival

Posted: July 26, 2013 in events
Tags: beach, Beach Boys food, beaches, churros, crowds, dancing, Dr. Draw, Erin McCallum, event, food, food trucks, gmmf, God Made Me Funky, Gorilla Cheese, happy, hats, jazz, Juice, kids, music, people, Phusion, Queen St. East, smiles, street, street festival, sunglasses, Toronto

Streetfest, part of the Beaches International Jazz Festival, was held 25, 26 and 27 July this year. About 2 km of Queen St. East is closed to traffic so pedestrians can enjoy the music provided by many bands representing a diverse array of music genres. On both Thursday and Friday evening when I was there the weather was perfect and the atmosphere was fun. I hope that I have been able to capture the spirit of the event!

Music, food, shopping, and most of all, people watching!