AfroFest is facing significant challenges in securing a permit from the City of Toronto as organizers have been told they’ve outgrown Woodbine Park where the event has been held for the past 37 years.
“It was indicated to us that we’ve outgrown the park. They said the capacity of the Woodbine Park is 17,000. And the number of people that attend Afrofest is way above that,” said Peter Toh, Executive and Artistic Director of AfroFest.
Toh said organizers have been exploring strategies on how to keep numbers down including making the free event ticketed, or by limiting entries into the park.
“However, at this point, we’ve not been given the chance to even explore that option,” said Toh.
He explained to CityNews they applied for the permit back in February. “And to date … we’ve been instructed not to sell tickets. We’ve been instructed not to promote the event.”
According to Toh, unlike in previous years, they were told not to sell tickets or advertise the event until the permit had been approved and to get approval, the event has meet specific conditions laid out by the City.
“So we paused our preparation waiting to hear from the City of Toronto with the terms and conditions that it would give us before we could continue. Well, those terms never came until the beginning of June.”
That initial application has since been denied, and there are now new terms set out by the city that Afrofest need to meet before being able to re-apply for a permit including submitting a detailed traffic plan and a capacity management strategy.
In a statement to CityNews, City of Toronto officials said they have been working with organizers to explore options that would allow the festival to proceed.
“As attendance projections of approximately 45,000 people per day is almost three times the safe capacity of Woodbine Park, the City is unable to approve the permit for this location,” read the statement from Parks, Forestry and Recreation General Manager Terry Ricketts.
AfroFest is slated to run from August 14 to16 this year and organizers say they will continue to figure out a way to make sure the event happens.
The city also says they are committed to working with organizers to adjust the event size or identify a suitable safe venue.
AfroFest, which is put on by the non-profit organization Music Africa of Canada, is the largest free African music festival in North America.
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