Toronto seems to have an endless stream of free festivals running throughout the year. This weekend was the Jazz Festival Streetfest, so we headed back out to the Beaches neighbourhood to check it out.
The StreetFest ran each night from July 21st to the 23rd, with a wide variety of bands playing every kind of music you can imagine taking to the street to entertain. A stretch of Queen Street East was completely shut down for the event, so crowds could wander as they pleased, checking out the music.
We headed down to the festival on Saturday. It didn't take too long to get down there on public transit, but the bus was body on body with festival goers. Fortunately the air conditioning was working.
We headed down to the festival on Saturday. It didn't take too long to get down there on public transit, but the bus was body on body with festival goers. Fortunately the air conditioning was working.
Getting off the bus we made our way into the festival zone and were immediately greeted with some tunes. The first band we encountered were a bit weird, so we quickly moved along to see some old rock and rollers. As we'd arrived fairly early on, the street hadn't yet become jammed up with festival goers so we were able to stroll casually along enjoying the summer evening (that was still 30 degrees!).
As we made our way all the way down the street we enjoyed a huge variety of music: rockabilly, jazz, Mexican, math rock, cover bands and poppy disco. The bands were doing a great job of pulling in the crowds and getting them moving.
As we made our way all the way down the street we enjoyed a huge variety of music: rockabilly, jazz, Mexican, math rock, cover bands and poppy disco. The bands were doing a great job of pulling in the crowds and getting them moving.
When we started to make our way back home, the crowds had reached their peak and we found we could barely move, let alone make our way all the way back down the street. Instead we wandered off the street and around the nearby residential areas before picking up (another super busy) bus back home.
Then on Sunday we went to the Tranzac Club to see Grownups Read Things They Wrote As Kids, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Real people had volunteered to get up on stage and read from real diary entries (and stories and angsty poetry) from their childhood. Needless to say it was hilarious, and a reminder of just how weird we all were as kids.
Great weekend had. Here are some more pics:
Then on Sunday we went to the Tranzac Club to see Grownups Read Things They Wrote As Kids, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Real people had volunteered to get up on stage and read from real diary entries (and stories and angsty poetry) from their childhood. Needless to say it was hilarious, and a reminder of just how weird we all were as kids.
Great weekend had. Here are some more pics:
Curious to see what we were up to last year? Well, we were taking a break from Ocean Pond at Bellevue Beach. Two years ago we were visiting the tiny French island of St. Pierre.
