2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Toronto Star
When Toronto loses a public event like Taste of the Danforth, it loses more than just a street festival
My band Rheostatics played Taste of the Danforth before the festival shuttered in 2023. For us, it was a riotous show. Kids across the street from the stage were dancing on low-rise apartment rooftops despite officials trying to wave them down. We had a running dialogue with the kids during our set; we called one of them Zeus and another Dionysus, and we listened as they shouted in response. The show was loud, the pavement was hot and everybody was unclasped in the way Torontonians are when they forget for a moment that they're in Toronto. A sea of bodies had transformed the neighbourhood, and just as we wrapped up, a traditional Greek band started playing two tents away. We drank beer and ate gyros to celebrate.
There was a time when Taste of the Danforth, recently cancelled again this year, was a red dot on Toronto summer calendars: free to attend, with delicious food and drink and clever musical programming on offer. A relatively sober urban strip would become a bustling quasi-European thoroughfare; you'd see elders among the teens, interlopers from the west end making their annual pilgrimage to the east.
