This weekend seems to be one of the most intense festive periods of the year in Toronto’s public spaces. Big chunks of the downtown will be closed to traffic for 10 official events. Most are inspiring: the Corso Italia Toronto Fiesta, serendipitously coinciding with Italy’s appearance in the World Cup final; The Taste of Lawrence Festival; Afrofest, North America’s largest and longest-running African music festival; and my personal favourite, the Toronto Outdoor Art festival. Some are less inspiring: the Grand Prix.
A couple of equally inspiring but less official events are happening this weekend too:
NEWMINDSPACE’S FLIGHT OF FANCY
Friday July 7th, 7pm, Queen’s Park
Meet at the centre statue on the north side of the park. Rain date TBA.A sparkling waterfront, a piece of history, an industrial wasteland, the skyline from a glorious beach. Think roving soundsystems, outrageous costumes, bold marching bands and a healthy dose of joie de vivre in the heat of the summer. This is your night. Bring your wings, your giant puppets, your oversized scuplture, your stilts, your art bicycles and your imagination. This night is what you make of it, so bring your best.
On July 7 2006, we invite you to join us for a massive, mobile celebration in Toronto. The climax of all our dreams. For more information go to http://www.newmindspace.com or contact love@newmindspace.com
WADE
July 7th- 9th
The Wade Collective and YYZ Artists’ Outlet present wade 2006, a biennal art and performance project spread through the City of Toronto’s wading pools. A selection of fourteen downtown pools – some of which are Christie Pits, Kensington Market’s Bellevue Square and Riverdale Park West – will be transformed into playful and interactive installations by artists and performers (both local and international) Friday July 7 to Sunday July 9 with afternoon and evening presentations which are all free to the public.
For more information go to www.wadetoronto.com or contact info@wadetoronto.com
The Star published an article today worrying about the effects of all these street closures on traffic, but really, this is the way Toronto should be all summer — people out in the streets on foot, enjoying the city and each other’s company, getting around by transit. For a weekend, the city will be a little bit of a public space utopia (well, except maybe for the Grand Prix).
4 comments
I’m not exactly a big fan of the Champcar racing event either, but I’m curious, what is your beef against the Grand Prix?
Okay, a car race involves cars, and does glamourize them, but the whole purpose and scale of it is completely different than racking up the milage on your gas-guzzler in traffic.
It brings a lot of people into the city – on public transit – who otherwise would not have come. It builds just as much community as a baseball game. Anyway, for a once-a-year event, it can’t be so bad.
On the other side of the coin, however, i can acknowledge that it’s noisy, consumptive and attracts people that wouldn’t normally be part of my social network.
It’s kinda like the opera; not a part of my life, but good to know that it exists in my hometown.
Thoughts?
I don’t have a big beef against the Grand Prix or anything — I just don’t find it inspiring or community-building in the way the other great events this weekend are. It’s a big commercial sporting event — fine for what it is, but nothing to wax lyrical about. And in terms of public space, I personally find it mildly negative — noisy and disruptive beyond the bounds of the event itself — and so not part of my personal public space utopia. I think most of the other events this weekend ARE worth waxing lyrical about, especially when considered all together, which is why I wrote this post.
I was in kind of a huff about the Grand Prix, but Mike’s points are valid … however, while I was on the Dundas car just yesterday, a parade of trucks, jeeps, and a tank (ok, that was cool) rumbled down University for about five continuous minutes without as much as a by-your-leave. With a police escort!
They stopped traffic both ways, including my more environmentally friendly streetcar and pedestrians. I guess it was only five minutes, but it *is* a very busy intersection, and seemed a bit more inconvenient than that.