As Toronto enters the peak of its festival season, event organizers are feeling a financial squeeze, with a growing share of their budgets going toward general amenities and safety measures. In response, both the city and the province have been moving to put more money behind the events that fill the summer calendar and draw crowds back into Toronto's streets and neighbourhoods.
Back in April, Toronto approved its first ever city-wide festival strategy. Among its key aims is to simplify the way organizers access general funding, cutting through some of the complexity that smaller events in particular have long struggled with when trying to secure support. The idea is to make the process less of an obstacle for the groups that actually put on the festivities.
The mayor said the festival budget had been increased by millions of dollars this year. Part of that money is meant to help organizers cope with the rising cost of running events, especially the expense of providing security and of closing streets to traffic so that the celebrations can take place safely. Those logistics, the city acknowledges, have become a heavier burden for organizers.
The push is not limited to City Hall. Also in April, the Ontario government announced it was investing more than 20 million dollars to support nearly 400 festivals and events across the province this year. It is a pool of money that local organizers are hoping to be able to tap in the seasons ahead, as they look for ways to keep their events sustainable.
For the people who actually stage the events, any help is welcome. Organizers said that funding from any level of government would be genuinely appreciated, while stressing that putting on a festival is an expensive undertaking. It is something they want to keep doing, they explained, but the costs involved make it difficult to sustain on enthusiasm alone year after year.
The conversation is playing out as the season gets into full swing, with events such as Due West Fest drawing large crowds along Dundas Street West over the weekend. Road closures tied to that festival are set to remain in effect into the early hours of Monday, a reminder of both the appeal of the city's summer of events and the logistical cost that comes with staging them.