Organizers for Toronto’s annual Portugal Day Parade say this year’s festivities will look a little different come June.
For the first time in nearly 40 years, participants will march along a new route that stretches across St. Clair Avenue West, and cuts through the city’s Corso-Italia neighbourhood.
The parade was traditionally held on Dundas Street West in Little Portugal. However, organizers with the Alliance of Portuguese Clubs and Associations of Ontario (ACAPO) told OMNI News that it wasn’t possible to continue the parade on Dundas this year, but no specific reason was given.
ACAPO President José Eustáquio says the new route is an enormous change. When looking for a new location for the parade, he says the alliance chose St. Clair Avenue because of its sizable Portuguese community, which continues to grow due to gentrification and shifting neighbourhood dynamics.
The parade is scheduled to begin at Oakwood Avenue at 10:00 a.m. on Sat. June 7, 2025 and will end at Caledonia Road. Meanwhile, Do West Fest is planned to take over the streets of Little Portugal that same weekend.
PORTUGAL WEEK 2025
Last month, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow announced that the City would contribute more than $2.5 million in funding for 64 Toronto festivals. According to City records, ACAPO will receive $18,000 for Portugal Week 2025.
Eustáquio says this is only the second time the festival has been able to secure funding from the City and hopes the Ontario government will follow suit when the province’s budget is tabled on May 15.
“We’re hoping … that we can count on the province for some support,” Eustáquio said at a press conference.
The festival will return to Earlscourt Park after a seven-year hiatus and will take place during the first weekend of June. Organizers say the events will feature live music, folk dancing, food and drinks. The festival is planned to wrap up on June 9 with a concert by singer João Pedro Pais at the Axis Club on College Street.
The first Portugal Day celebrations in Toronto were held in 1966, when several thousand people gathered near Exhibition Place to celebrate Portuguese culture and commemorate the death of Luís de Camões, a famous poet and literary icon whose work has been compared to Shakespeare.
As the community resettled in the Dundas West Area throughout the 1970s-80s, Trinity-Bellwoods Park became the main site of the festival’s events. June is Portuguese Heritage Month and June 10 was officially declared Portugal Day in Canada back in 2017.
