Toronto's Taste of the Danforth set to return this summer for first time since 2019

Toronto’s beloved east-end street festival, Taste of the Danforth, is returning this year, according to a local city councillor, after three years of cancellations due to pandemic restrictions and logistical issues last summer.

Toronto-Danforth Coun. Paula Fletcher shared the news in a tweet posted Tuesday afternoon.

“Taste of the Danforth a go for 2023! Very happy that Board of Directors of [the Greektown on the Danforth BIA] voted today to hire an event planner to assist them to plan and execute this year’s [event],” she wrote.

After two years of pandemic-related cancelations in 2020 and 2021, the festival was on track to return last year, but it was ultimately cancelled in June because of logistical issues that the local BIA said would put the event “at too great a risk of not being as successful as in the past.”

At the time, there was a disagreement between the Greektown BIA and the city on whether or not it was feasible to remove the bike lanes and CaféTO installations along Danforth Avenue for the event, which the BIA was in favour of, but the city said would cause too much of a disruption.

When the issue was not resolved in time, the BIA opted to host “localized” events on the strip instead.

The business association said last summer that it needed time to reimagine the event in light of the new streetscape along The Danforth, saying it would “take the time, working hand in hand with the city and all our partners, to put on the best Taste of the Danforth ever in 2023.”

Taste of the Danforth is typically held on the second weekend in August for three days along Danforth Avenue in Toronto’s east end. The street is closed-off to vehicles and features dozens of food vendors, music, and other attractions.

Considered one of Canada’s largest street festivals, it was expected to welcome an estimated 1.6 million visitors last year. When the event was last held in 2019, it had an economic impact of approximately $70 million, organizers said.

With files from CP24's Joanna Lavoie.