Guess Where Your Money Will Be Going

Comrade Miller's Nuit Blanche attracted about 425,000 visitors

Mayor Mel Lastman's Celebrate Toronto's attracted about 1 million visitors.

Nuit Blanche kicks street fest to curb
Lastman's `Celebrate Toronto' scrapped despite audience support
April 15, 2007
John Spears
city Hall bureau

Toronto has quietly killed a summer festival that was one of former mayor Mel Lastman's legacies to the city.

The Celebrate Toronto festival, which took over five major intersections along Yonge St. the weekend after Canada Day each year, has been scrapped.

The effort has been rolled into one of Mayor David Miller's favourite festivals, the revelry of Nuit Blanche, an event featuring outdoor and indoor theatrical performances.

This year's event is to start Sept. 29 at 7:03 p.m. and continue until dawn.

The decision stands in stark contrast to a staff report that raved about Celebrate Toronto's "overwhelming audience support" and "international acclaim."

The festival, said the October 2005 report, attracted more than a million people – 20 per cent of them tourists.

Lastman initiated the festival in 1998, the year Toronto was amalgamated into a megacity. The various locations had concerts, midway rides, food and street performers, each with a different theme.

"For people who don't have a cottage, it was a great weekend to be in the city," said Councillor Karen Stintz (Ward 16, Eglinton-Lawrence), who said she enjoyed the events.

But the festival had run its course, said Councillor Kyle Rae, who chairs the city's economic development committee.

"There was a feeling it may have served its purpose and its life expectancy, and there was now a new cultural event that was more dynamic," said Rae (Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale).

"There's a greater breadth across the city than Yonge St. There's a better cultural project that the city can present, and it's Nuit Blanche," Rae said.

Councillor Joe Pantalone (Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina) agreed.

"The city has limited resources and we thought we could achieve more" by going in a different direction, Pantalone said.

But Stintz noted the festival was in line with the city's green aspirations. For one thing, it was held in car-free zones.

"We have cut out an extremely important street festival ... and there was no discussion about it," she said.

The staff report submitted in support of last year's festival called it a "high-profile" event that showcased 490 local artists.

The festival, it added, was "well positioned for continued international acclaim."

But the city's operating budget, which goes before city council on Friday, now recommends axing the "City of Toronto street festival" – not even deigning to use its formal name.

The $721,000 budget, which includes $400,000 of city money plus private sponsorships, will be given to Nuit Blanche.

The inaugural edition of Nuit Blanche attracted about 425,000 visitors, compared with Celebrate Toronto's 1 million.

With files from Jim Byers