Toronto’s annual celebration of African music and culture will not take place this year, with organizers blaming the City of Toronto for a slow response time on new capacity restrictions at Woodbine Park.
Afrofest was preparing to celebrate its 38th year of festivities, but said communication with the city was slow from the beginning, with organizers only hearing back on their permit request two months before the festival’s scheduled opening date in August.
In past years, the festival has featured musical acts and vendors representing different cultures from across the continent.
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The response came with bad news for the festival. This year, the city reduced the operational capacity limit of Woodbine Park from 17,000 to 5,000. Organizers say the festival regularly attracts up to 40,000 people over the course of a single day.
Music Africa, the organizers of the event, said in a statement that it had planned to implement improved safety initiatives, including ticketing, fencing and controlled entry. However, they also acknowledged that thousands of people would still travel to the park expecting to get in, which presented “a public safety risk outside the festival gates that could not be responsibly managed.”
Organizers say the mayor’s office did get involved, and that members of both parties had travelled to multiple other venues around Toronto to scout out a replacement, but time ran out to save this year’s celebrations.
In a statement, Music Africa said it will “use the additional lead time to work with the City of Toronto and partners to secure a larger, more suitable venue” for next year’s festival.
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