Starving Foodie: festivals

Showing posts with label festivals. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Covid 19 cancels events in Toronto until July

Today the Mayor of Toronto announced that all events and Parade permits are now cancelled until July 2020.

Will the Food, Events and Entertainment and Travel Industries survive the effects of this COVID 19 pandemic?

The last large event that I attended was the Restaurant Canada Show it is one of my favourite annual shows and I haven't gotten to my blog post yet because there were so many things that I want to write about and need to have the time to do it. But I mention it now because I had no idea that it was to be the last big event that I would be able to go to at the time and how it would affect all the people that attended that show. It was only a couple of weeks later that so many Restaurants in the city had to shut down because Toronto is now in a state of emergency and people are told to stay home. Restaurants had to let their staff go and either convert to pick up or delivery or shut their doors.

With Bloggers Mary Tang (Marys Happy Belly) Jenny Roger (Ice cream and Knishes) and restauranteur Trevor Lui

I worked at Sunnybrook Hospital when Sars hit in 2003 and it affected the Restaurant industry and many restaurants lost money and some closed but not to the extent that it has hit the industry in such a short time frame. Restaurants workers work long hours for minimum wage or less in some cases and don't have a lot of the benefits some people enjoy.

I have gotten to know many people in the food, events and entertainment industry over the past 10 years while writing this blog and my heart breaks for them now.

If you have been reading my blog you know that I volunteer for the Toronto Film Festival who's building on King Street has now shuttered until an undetermined time and the next festival could be up in the air at this time.

I also have an events management background and know how hard it is to organize events in this city and how long it takes to organize a festival or even a small event. It requires many people getting together to plan and execute which is not possible at this time.

For the first time in my life I am working from home. I am lucky that I can do that at this time but I can't do all of the tasks of my job so I don't know what it will be like when everything is back on track.

The Mayor has cancelled the Pride Parade, the Hot Docs Film Festival, Comicon, the Juno Awards, the Green Living Show, The Canadian Screen Awards and too many more to mention have been either cancelled for this year or have been pushed to a much later date.

This will affect my blog but it won't silence it because I have been writing about events for almost 10 years but it's not the only thing I write about luckily. I had already reduced my attendance at events and had less restaurant invites. I have been spending more time at home cooking my own food and trying to reduce my waste.

But here is the thing that I am concerned about. What will happen when this Social distancing and State of Emergency has lifted? Will people go back to life as normal? Will we lose a lot of great things for good?

While I love the fact that people are now having to embrace cooking at home and you see loads of people making bread on Instagram I also miss meeting up with friends at restaurants or going to food events and meeting the chefs and vendors making the food.

Will they persevere or give up and be forced to do something else to survive?

After Sars lifted there was a huge Concert at Downsview Park. What will we do this time?

I wish I had unlimited funds to be able to order food from all the places that have been able to adapt and stay open during this time to keep them going. If you have the means I would urge you to order food every other day maybe. Build your cooking skills and appreciate the people that cook the food for you. They may not always be there to make your favourite foods.

Monday, July 25, 2016

Pop Up Festival City in TO

I am writing this post a little differently today. My computer seems to have given up trying to keep up with all the pop ups and festivals that I have been trying to go to lately and it won't even start up, just like a stubborn child. Yeah I know computers don't last long anymore but I think I just overloaded it with way too many festival images. Anyway, for this post I am typing with one finger on my IPad while lying in bed. Why? Well because my body is tired but my blogger brain won't shut off.

I don't want to fall too far behind and leave out posts I wanted to write so will see how this goes for now until I figure out how to solve my computer issues.

This past weekend I attended 2 festivals. One was a community street festival that seemed more like a flea market on a Main Street. That festival was Big on Bloor. Spanning from Dufferin to Landsdowne on Bloor Street it closed down the streets for 2 days. I decided to check it out because I was close to the area looking for a new computer and on a crazy hot day I get the. Bright idea to walk on Bloor in the sun and sweat my face off. There wasn't much food vendors but there were activities and a lot of jewellery vendors. I basically just walked from Dufferin to Landsdowne and took some pics and hopped back on the subway. Not much there for me.

On Friday after work I went to the Toronto Festival of Beer with my blogger friend Shuang. It was insanely hot and you had to walk from the Princess Gates to past the Better living building. I don't think it was the best day for us to go. We were tired and sweaty but once again I went to check it out for you. Beer festivals are not my thing because I don't drink beer and not interested in getting drunk to the point of the next day being a write off. This was that kind of festival with more beer vendors than food vendors in a close proximity with loads of 20-30 somethings looking for a good time.

Yeah I'm probably too old for these things but Shuang isn't and she just turned into an old lady too.

I walked around to check everything out but since I don't drink beer it kind of felt a bit useless for me to be there. I will leave the beer description up to some of my fellow bloggers and beer lovers that I know attended the festival. I will just tell you what else was there. There was a Le Grille grilling tent where a few of Toronto's popular chefs were doing demos. Some notable like Ted Reader and the Chefs from Antler, camagnolo, Raca Cafe, and Pizzeria Libretto and many more.

Other food vendors included the energetic Matt Basile with his Fidel Gastros food truck.

There was hand pie from the Pie commission and Poutine from Smokes Poutinerie and even some Swedish food to go with Swedish Beer.

There were even games to play and some big music artists there like Maestro Fresh Wes and many more.

I didn't eat or drink anything and we didn't stay long because it was just too hot to wander around.

I know lots of people with less clothing on had a really great time there but I went from work and was wearing black pants so that should explain why I didn't stay long.

A couple of weeks ago I went to the TO Food Fest at the Chinese Cultural centre in Scarborough. What I like about this festival is that it has an indoor and outside setup. With washrooms available inside. It's only $2 or a food bank donation to get in which I think is a good idea. They had an area for kids to play and there is a small lot with free parking if you get there early.

It's pretty much all food but the diversity is amazing. There was Filipino, Japanese, Brazilian, Cambodian, Jamaican and a whole lot of other ethnic and new trend foods. From the Sushi Burritos to the Ice Cream Rolls to the Raindrop cakes.

I have seen a lot of these things before but it's a good place to try all kinds of food in one convenient location with less walking than the CNE and you will see stuff here before it hits the CNE usually.

I have said it before, there is a festival r popup for everyone and everything in Toronto.

Have we reached the limit yet or is Toronto's appetite for new foods and festivals not going to end anytime soon?

There are a few more food festivals I will be writing about soon so stay tuned, there's more to come.

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Hot & Spicy Festival at Harbourfront

It has been a glorious and HOT long weekend in Toronto and the perfect time to go to Harbourfront to have a taste of the HOT & SPICY FESTIVAL.

Vancouver's Celebrity Chef Vikram Vij was there to do a cooking demo of his families Curry Chicken Recipe and talk about all things spicy. According to Vikram Hot Countries eat Spicy food to "expel heat" and cool countries eat certain foods to "retain heat".

Alison Fryer and Chef Vikram Vij

Well this weekend is a good time to eat lot's of Spicy Food to expel lot's of heat for sure.

There was lot's of things to see and do at Harbourfront like Bingo and all kinds of cooking demos to see and music and dancing and all kinds of different things. I saw a few minutes of Chef Marcus Monteiro talking about Cheese making and passed another demo about Herbs.

I wanted to go support a couple of food industry friends at their PARTY FOOD on a STICK competition. Four competitors were tasked with creating party snacks like popcorn, pretzels, cereals or that sort that can be eaten on a stick. I am happy to say that Aphrodite Cook's Chef Vanessa Yeung won 1st place for her bacon and cheese on a pretzel and my other foodie friend Paula Costa (Dragon's Kitchen) took 3rd place with here piri piri sweet popcorn and cereal on a stick, although I liked hers the best.

There was lot's of Hot Sauces to sample.

There wasn't a lot of food samples besides the hot sauces but there was a couple of independent vendors and the food in the World Cafe. I had the Choco Churros - 2 for $5 from one of the stand vendors and tried the Thai Meal Combo for $9 at the World Cafe. The Thai food was pretty tasty. I also had a sweet grilled corn from the Jamaican vendor who is there all season long. Always a good bet but they are always so busy that the vendors are pretty exhausted.

The sun was out and there was a great breeze coming off the lake but I left at about 7pm because all the selfie sticks and huge families descended upon the lake front and so did the noise. Music coming out of restaurants and all kind of buskers started to set up their stations along the boardwalk. A few different musicians, artists, magicians, and balloon makers. My nice peaceful day by the lake changed into a day at the busker festival so I left. I was looking for a quiet and peaceful festival hoping that everyone was at the CNE or Fan Expo. I guess I must be getting old or this city is just getting way to noisy and packed with people these days. I have to say that the subway ride home was also extremely chatty and loud. Maybe too many people eating loads of sugar things this weekend. Tends to make everyone a bit louder and a lot more hyper. Who knows but it was fairly quiet up until that point.

The festival runs all weekend and a couple of other friends are doing demos today even so you still have time to check it out.

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

August Food Events in Toronto 2015

AUGUST is a really busy month full of Stuffing Your Face opportunities. So many street festivals and events to choose from. I compiled a list of some of the bigger public ones but I am sure I probably missed a few too.