This weekend, Kensington Market was supposed to host the first Pedestrian Sunday (PSK) of the season — with most streets into and out of the eclectic neighbourhood closed to vehicles, allowing people to enjoy all it has to offer without worrying about traffic.
Businesses in the market usually set up tables of merchandise outside their stores or host other small vendors out front, restaurants offer street-side eats and a number of pop-up booths and stalls typically participate in the event.
But the area’s BIA says they’re pressing pause on the event, with the much anticipated summer kick off on May 25 cancelled.
Some area businesses say they were caught off guard by the cancellation.
“[The BIA] doesn’t ever keep in touch with anybody. I sent out a message to a lot of the businesses today in a group chat and nobody realized Pedestrian Sunday was cancelled. So the communication is really bad [from the BIA],” said Joy Zubair, owner of vintage clothing and décor store Boho Chachkies.
“You literally told me a couple minutes ago that it was cancelled, I had no idea,” Shane Dunphy, assistant manager at Public Butter Vintage, told CityNews.
“The cancellation was last minute for sure. We had a few plans and we sort of canceled them last minute as well,” said the owner of Kid Icarus print shop Michael Viglione.
“That said, we might still have some vendors in front of our shop, just to keep that tradition going.”
CityNews reached out to the Kensington Market BIA for an interview, but was unable to secure one prior to publication.
In a statement on their website, the BIA said the decision to pause “follows extensive community feedback and the recent public consultation on the festival’s direction.”
They cited a number of ongoing issues including an influx of unpermitted vendors leading to overcrowding and logistical challenges and the sale of unauthorized substances that created liability issues as well as health and safety concerns.
“Additionally, PSK began as a celebration of art, music, dance, play, and community — a family-friendly space to explore and enjoy diverse cultures. In recent years, the event has taken on a more commercial tone, which no longer reflects the values that originally shaped it. While we understand that festivals naturally evolve, we believe it’s time to realign with the spirit that made PSK special in the first place,” said the BIA board of management in the statement.
Reactions from area businesses were mixed.
“It’s kind of unfortunate, but I do realize why it was canceled. There was a lot of scuffles with sort of illegal street vendors poaching spaces and it became really irritating and dangerous. So I totally understand the security reasons,” said Viglione.
“I don’t know how they’re going to fix it. As a shop owner, we definitely miss it. I love the people coming out and the culture. If we can bring back some more art and culture into the event, that’d be amazing. But for now, it kind of sucks [that it had to be cancelled].”
With its original location in Parkdale, Public Butter Vintage just had the soft launch of their Kensington Market location last weekend — taking over the large space once occupied by the erstwhile Blue Banana. Dunphy says they were really looking forward to their first Pedestrian Sunday.
“The market’s a very exciting neighborhood and one of the big, enticing things about it is those Pedestrian Sundays,” he said.
“Our last weekend was really busy — our first one here. So we were excited for Pedestrian Sunday because we figured like even more foot traffic [ will come in] and it was like a really promising start for the store. So hearing that it’s cancelled is a bit of a bummer because it seemed like a really good opportunity for us.”
Zubair says she’s pleased with the decision because the event was far from beneficial for her store.
“For us, they actually block our street off, so pedestrians can’t even really walk on it unless you know that you can still walk on the road on this street [not just the sidewalk]. So our business, the sales are worse than a weekday. So I was very happy when I heard,” she said.
Apart from what she considers poor planning on the part of the BIA, Zubair added that her business has also suffered due to illegal vendors, which the BIA says “create unfair competition for local levy-paying businesses that contribute year-round to the community and to PSK”
“Random people will set up at five in the morning in front of your business, so you can’t even set up in front of your own store. I’ve had random people set up across the street and start selling $5 vintage clothing and I put on like a whole event with sponsors and six vendors in the front selling vintage. And then we have these people across the street competing with us,” she said.
“This is like the ‘hippie’ area of Toronto and it’s definitely a free for all — you just come and do whatever you want, which is so fun. But it’s not fun when there’s a planned event and the businesses don’t even profit from it.”
For now, the BIA has only confirmed that the May 25 edition of the event has been scrapped. Their statement says future 2025 dates will be reassessed based on the results of a community survey, although it is unclear how businesses and residents can participate in it.
“The BIA will also seek support from the Mayor’s Office and local councillor and is calling on businesses and community members to get involved in planning a refreshed version of PSK that reflects the true heart of Kensington Market,” read the statement.
“As part of this effort, we will also be exploring funding opportunities through the City and other grant programs to help meet the financial demands of executing a safe, inclusive, and community-focused festival.”
Ward councillor Dianne Saxe told CityNews she sympathizes with the BIA and area businesses.
“It’s a terrible shame because it’s enormously popular, brings lots of people to Kensington Market and I’m really sorry, but I completely understand the decision of the BIA,” she said.
“I deeply respect the enormous challenges that are facing the businesses in Kensington Market. I want to do what I can to support them, but we councillors, we don’t have any operating funds. And [the Province] is picking our pocket on Fifa, picking our pocket on Ontario Place, impoverishing the City over and over again so that we don’t have the money to support groups like this.”
Meanwhile, visitors and tourists CityNews spoke to expressed disappointment about missing out on the festivities.
“It’s lovely to be around this place — there’s a bunch of stuff going on but if we cannot do that, especially when we are travelling from [so far away], that’s quite sad,” said Lionel, visiting from Netherlands.
“Definitely sad and disappointed about the fact that we can’t enjoy this event we were looking forward to being a part of,” added Pre, visiting from Miami.
Viglione hopes the event will return next month or later in the summer.
“It’d really be a shame if it were to fall to the wayside, I think that’d be very unfortunate,” he said.
“[It brings] new people into Kensington and [they are] seeing the place for the first time and really experiencing it in the best way possible.”
Dunphy added that he is also holding out hope that future dates will not be cancelled.
“I definitely hope that the Pedestrian Sundays will keep happening because that was one of our huge draws for coming and taking over this huge space, because it gets a ton of business on the weekends,” he said.
Zubair said that she would like the BIA to work with the City and be more communicative with businesses so that they can come together to make Pedestrian Sundays better and more successful for all involved.
“If we all, as a community, did this together — this could be a crazy good event,” she said.
