As the Greater Toronto Area emerges from two years of pandemic lockdowns and restrictions, summer festivals are roaring back to life. However, one of the city’s longest-standing annual events won’t be one of them.
The Pride Parade will be held this weekend for the first time in two years, something expected to provide much economic relief for Church-Wellesley businesses like AMOR Fusion Doner & Kebab.
“We were very excited about this Pride month and the sales we are going to get. We’re really waiting for today, tomorrow and how it’s going to be on the weekend,” said cashier Sari Mandela.
Just down the street at Glad Day Bookshop, co-owner Ty Coda Gilecki is also reading into the revenue the event is expected to bring in.
“It’s kind of like Christmas for a lot of businesses,” he said.
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“Pride really brings in a lot of revenue, which really helps smaller, independent businesses along the strip.”
But it’s a tale of two different festivals for business in Greektown, with Taste of the Danforth left out while numerous festivals resume this summer.
The GreekTown BIA, which organizes the annual event, said Wednesday it had to cancel it this year due to a lack of time to make the needed preparations. Those preparations included addressing city infrastructure, part of the CafeTO program and bike lanes.
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But there are questions surrounding why organizers were able to make Pride happen, despite Church Street also impacted by the CafeTO program.
“The bottom line from what I understand is that the emergency services and their requirements are impeding the festival,” said Erin Gamelin, who owns Louis Cifer Brew Works on the Danforth.
She adds she understand why organizers made the decision to call off the event.
“Frankly, yes, the festival brings in a ton of surplus revenue for all the businesses,” she said.
“However, the revenue that we would lose in the five to 10 days of missing out on CafeTO definitely would not be worth it.”
The city tells Global News it “understands that the GreekTown on the Danforth Business Improvement Area’s Board of Management has determined the best way to ensure the long-term success of the festival is to postpone restarting it until 2023.”
“Any further comment will need to come from the BIA.”
Global News contacted GreekTown BIA executive director Mary Fragedakis and local city councillor Paula Fletcher, who represents the area, as they are the two most closely tied to the decision to cancel Taste of the Danforth.
Both were not available for an interview.
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