An annual reminder that one of the best places in the city to be on Halloween night is on Church Street. It’s closed to traffic and turns into a giant pageant with some of the best costumes you’ll find in the city. It runs long after the last kids have come to your door, so wander by later and check out one of Toronto’s best pedestrian events of the year. Dress 2 impress!
There are two other events Friday night worth noting. While they take place in public-private spaces, they’re organized by folks who have helped us a lot with Spacing events in the past, and both have created events and scenes that have made Toronto a better place.
Vazoween Holiday Costume Party (link is to Facebook event page)
Will Munro, creator of Toronto’s legendary Vazaleen parties and the Beaver restaurant and bar, is back on Bloor Street with his annual Vazoween party at Lee’s Palace.
Featuring, straight from London, England: Nobra — A new meaning to gender confusion
Dancing, games, visuals. Advance tickets at Soundscapes on College.
Santa Cruz at Captain John’s Haunted Seafood Ship
Tyler Clark Burke’s semi-regular event held on Toronto’s strangest floating landmark goes Halloween this year — advance tickets available at the link above.
Captain John’s. 1 Queen’s Quay W.
With DJs Ray Gillespie, Jeremy Stewart, TCB, Rob Benvie.With Guests:
Staring Therapy, Secret Dance, Aurora de Pena, Rose Bianchini, Make-Out Booths, The Future and Emily Dickinson Fortunes with Damian Rogers, Ouija Boards, Advice Booth with Amanda Burt, Adam Harris, Tattoo Parlour with Sarah Bolen, and much more.
Photo by Bahman.
8 comments
I wish we were hosting another Halloween jam in public space this year, but there are simply too many competing events pulling our community every which way.
So we are headed to NYC for their annual illegal street parade/subway party/warehouse jam.
If you keep your eyes (or Facebook) open, though, there are some cool urban exploration opportunities here in Toronto this Halloween…
There is probably an essay waiting to be written about trick-or-treating as a proxy for successful urban design, with 10 yr olds as the perfect canaries in a coal mine. Toronto would do very well in such a study, for the following reasons:
– it’s in North America. Other places don’t really do Halloween.
– streets are long and packed tight with houses. No vacant lots or urban ruins. Few suburb-like McMansions on megalots either, which wear kids out.
– good grid of streets maximizes candy-rich routes (few dead ends)
– fall in Toronto is gorgeous. Pumpkins and palm trees do not mix.
– city is safe enough for parents to let the kids actually go trick or treating
– homes are generally affluent enough to decorate and participate. Nothing kills trick-or-treating like non-participating houses
– Cadbury’s!
In any case, my comment is not about the past but the future. How will Halloween evolve for all those living in the many new condos built downtown and elsewhere? For those in towers, and especially for those with young kids, will they make a sad attempt at hallway trick-or-treating? Go visit friends with houses on Oct 31? Or maybe start creating their own Halloween event downtown? If so, I would not be surprised if the Church St gathering evolves into a full-fledged all-ages Halloween parade, similar to the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade in New York. It’s the perfect fun event for a densifying city.
I’ve been in the GV parade a few times (with a college band) and watched it a few more – a million people having a blast, the biggest parade I’ve ever seen. (Youtube it) I’ve marched in the Santa Claus parade also, and it is completely different. Much more participatory, and the audience is of course dressed up themselves. The parade has changed greatly from its gay-village origins and is now marketed as a family event, more or less. The perfect solution for a city where, in Manhattan at least, Trick or Treating does not exist. Is it Toronto’s future also?
Thanks uSkyscraper. I think the Church Street party has evolved quickly in the past few years — I think this is just the 4th year the streets have been closed?
I have often wondered about trick or treating in Manhattan. What about kids on the Upper east and west sides? Do people sit in their building lobbies and give treats?
Here in Cabbagetown the amount of kids is staggering — and I think due to a Manhattan effect. Little ones from Regent Park and St. Jamestown come here because it’s nearby and accessible. Cabbagetown people go all out too, decorating homes in such elaborate ways. Halloween night in Cabbagetown is certainly when Sesame Street style fuzzy-warm-urbanism is at maximum levels in Toronto.
uSky:
Dylan mentioned this in a previous post that Halloween is the biggest pedestrian event of the year (at least for the young). We often forget that and I’m glad you pointed out some of the great urban form examples that make it best for kids. Though, inner suburbia does seem to do a better job at Hallowween than the old parts of Toronto.
Maybe a separate topic is required for everyone to pool their own experiences and vote on the best trick-or-treat streets in Toronto. I nominate St. Leonard’s Ave in Lawrence Park.
To answer the question of Manhattan, I never experienced it as a kid but have learned a few things in my 8 years here:
– many apartment buildings will post a sign-up sheet in their lobby for people that want kids to come to their door for candy. The kids then go only to the doors on the list. Totally lame – no spookly atmosphere lines a carpeted hallway, and typically very few people on a hall will volunteer for it. If you’re the only one on your floor, expect no kids — who would waste precious candy time in an elevator for one more bar?
– the city parks dept runs a couple events to give kids an excuse to dress up and get candy in a safe environment. For many kids, this and/or a party at school are the main dress-up events. http://snurl.com/4tg8l
– trick or treating in general is undermined by the “trick” part. Like in some other US cities, there is a nasty tradition of vandalism on Halloween that really discourages people in marginal areas from wanting to take part. Here’s an article from the bad old days: http://snurl.com/4tg7c
– on the brownstone streets of the upper west side and upper east sides, there is some trick or treating but remember than almost all of these brownstones are multi-family, so no pumpkins, no decor – and lots of stairs to climb. Kids like candy, but not that much.
– most trick or treating in general tends to be very early and with very young kids. It is not so much crime as the general dangers of New York – traffic, rats, etc. – that make parents keep the older, independent kids indoors. Plus, there are tons of very young children in Manhattan but not that many older kids — they moved to the suburbs or outer boroughs long ago. And finally, the GV parade is freaking awesome, and many families now go to that as the big event.
– there is a tiny part of Manhattan, where I live, where there are a few houses that, like Cabbagetown, get swarmed with real trick or treaters. Good fun.
Church Street got ridiculously crowded last year when it fell on a Wednesday and I can only imagine what it will be like on a Friday!
and with the temperatures like they are today!
Well, back when I was a kid, in the 70’s, there was definitely trick or treating in NYC. We went out in big groups of kids, did several apartment buildings (about 15 stories in my neighborhood) hit the shops on Bway and some of the brownstones… We had a great time and didn’t feel deprived by the lack of houses. Kids make spooky where they will.
Now it’s a whole different ballgame, of course. And it’s not that the city is more dangerous than it was then (remember, I’m talking the 70’s).