11 Toronto street festivals to check out this summer
Looking to enjoy the summer in the city without breaking the bank? Here are 10 street festivals that celebrate the best music, food and culture that Toronto has to offer.
Indigenous Arts Festival
June 20 and 21 at Fort York
Snotty Nose Rez Kids will headline this year's Indigenous Arts Festival at Fort York in Toronto.
Looking for a special way to celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day this year? Taking place on the two longest days of the year at Toronto's Fort York, the Indigenous Arts Festival is a free, family-friendly event featuring traditional and contemporary music, dance, food and art inspired by First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples of Turtle Island.
Friday's music lineup will be headlined by DJ Shub, a trail-blazing producer (and former member of A Tribe Called Red) who helped pioneer the pow-wow-step genre, while Saturday's lineup will feature a traditional pow wow and a special performance by the Indigenous rap duo Snotty Nose Rez Kids.
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See the full festival lineup here.
Toronto Jazz Festival
June 20 to 29, various locations
Legendary R&B and gospel singer Mavis Staples will headline the Toronto Jazz Festival.file photo
The 38th annual Jazz Fest will take over Toronto for 10 days, with free outdoor performances taking place throughout the Bloor-Yorkville neighbourhood, plus ticketed events for a diverse lineup of local and international artists performing at venues scattered across the city.
The 2025 festival will be headlined by legendary R&B and gospel singer Mavis Staples, Toronto indie-rock titans Broken Social Scene and renowned actor Jeff Goldblum, who will perform contemporary arrangements of classic jazz and American Songbook standards alongside the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra.
See details and the full schedule here.
Music
Toronto Jazz Fest announces full lineup, with Mavis Staples, Jeff Goldblum and Broken Social Scene slated as headliners
Richie Assaly
Pride Toronto Festival Weekend
June 26 to 29, The Village (Church-Wellesley)
The 2024 Toronto Pride Parade.
Nick Lachance/ Toronto Star
Whether you're looking to attend the Drag Ball or Sober Oasis, join the Trans and Dyke marches or peruse the Two-Spirit artists market, Pride Toronto has something for everyone during its 2025 Festival Weekend at the end of June.
The weekend will also feature dozens of live performances from local and international acts, including Brampton rapper (and former Polaris Music Prize winner) Haviah Mighty, Toronto drag queen superstar Priyanka and American R&B/pop singer Amerie.
Find all the details and full lineup information here.
Star Interactive
Toronto Pride 2025: Your guide to parade weekend, our favourite local spots and everything else you need to know
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TD Salsa in Toronto Festival
July 5 and 6, St. Clair Avenue West, between Winona Road and Christie Street
The 21st annual TD Salsa in Toronto Festival will transform midtown Toronto into the ultimate fiesta.
Steve Russell/ Toronto Star file photo
Looking to move your hips this summer? Grab your dancing shoes and head up to St. Clair Avenue West this July to take part in 'Canada's hottest salsa party.' The two-day fiesta, now in its 21st year, features local and international musicians, authentic cuisine and all things Latino culture.
See details and performance schedule here.
Toronto Summer Music Festival
July 10 to Aug. 2, various locations
TO Summer Music, an annual classical music festival, is celebrating its 20th anniversary with over two dozen concerts bringing world musicians to the city, plus free concerts, children's programming and much more.
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This year's festival kicks off with a performance of the timeless opera 'The Coronation of Poppea,' conducted by Leonardo García-Alarcón.
Find all the details here.
Big on Bloor Festival
July 19 and 20, Bloor Street West between Dufferin and Lansdowne
Toronto Samba Reggae drummers set the beat for members of Dance Migration for their performance that ran the length of the Big on Bloor Festival in 2022.
Steve Russell/ Toronto Star file photo
Now in its 19th year, Big on Bloor will transform Bloordale Village into a car-free festival of art and culture, while showcasing the unique small businesses that make the neighbourhood one of Toronto's most vibrant.
The theme of this year's (completely free) festival is 'Bizarre,' organizers say: 'a celebration of the delightfully peculiar aspects of local culture, artistry and community life, through workshops and installations led by local BIPOC artists, presenting conversations (about) their relationship to the individual, cultural oddities and how both are necessary for a healthy creative community.'
Keep Bloor Street weird!
More details available here.
OssFest
July 26, Ossington Strip, between Dundas Street West and Queen Street West
For years, Ossington has been touted as 'one of the coolest streets' in Toronto (in fact, in 2022, it was named the 14th coolest street in the world). Don't believe it? Check it out at OssFest on July 26, a pedestrian takeover that transforms the strip into a family-friendly celebration of music, food and culture. And because it's Ossington, you know it's going to get rowdy in the evening.
See more details here.
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Toronto Caribbean Carnival Weekend
July 31 to Aug. 4, Exhibition Place & Lake Shore Boulevard West
Naomi Stephens, 10, in yellow and Kalyce Grant Hackett, 12, wearing purple, join in the festivities at the Toronto Caribbean Carnival official launch in 2019.
R.J. Johnston/ Toronto Star file photo
Now in its 58th year, Toronto's Caribbean Carnival Weekend (formerly known, and lovingly referred to, as Caribana) has the distinction of being North America's largest outdoor street festival, typically attracting well over a million attendees and adding hundreds of millions of dollars to Ontario's GDP.
The festival, known for its food, music and colourful costumes, culminates each year in the Grand Parade, during which Lake Shore Boulevard is transformed into a massive stage for masqueraders and steelpan performers, with music that can be heard from kilometres away.
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Find all the details here.
JerkFest
Aug. 8 to 10, Centennial Park
What better way to enjoy a summer weekend than indulging in mouth-watering Caribbean food while enjoying the sweet sounds of reggae and dancehall? This August, North America's longest running jerk food and music festival returns to Centennial Park in Etobicoke for three days of family-friendly fun, with performances from Jamaican reggae star Tarrus Riley, Valiant and many more.
Check out details and full lineup information here.
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Yorkville Murals Festival
August 23–24, Yorkville Avenue, between Bellair Street and Hazelton Avenue
Guided by the theme 'No Empty Spaces,' the sixth edition of the Yorkville Murals Festival will turn this downtown neighbourhood into an interactive cultural playground filled with large-scale murals, inflatable art, immersive installations and more. The festival will kick off on the evening of Friday Aug. 22 at sunset with a DJ set by the international electronic artist Kaskade.
Find more details here.
Roncesvalles Polish Festival
Sept. 13 and 14, Roncesvalles Avenue
Crowds jam the street for the Roncesvalles Polish Festival — North America's largest — in 2017.
Richard Lautens/ Toronto Star file photo
Czesc! As the summer winds down, head down to Toronto's west end for some perogy and polka music at Roncy Polish Festival, which has been bringing old world charm to the city for 17 years. The two-day festival boasts four stages, 40 performances, 20 buskers, 90 vendors and exhibitors, and two family zones with rides and more.
Find all the details here.
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Music It was a cool night for a hot start to the 45th Montreal International Jazz Festival as Chicago soul legend Mavis Staples showed tens of thousands of music fans how it's done in the opening night free outdoor blowout. Temperatures hovered just under the 20-degree mark, which wasn't so bad, but coming off an oppressive early-summer heat wave, it felt almost like fall. That wasn't enough to stop the throngs from taking in the sights and sounds on the free stages early in the evening. Or to prevent everyone from gathering in front of the main TD stage just after sunset. Staples made her entrance just after 9:30 p.m., bringing along a lifetime of soul singing that started with her siblings when she was just a little girl. Her dad was pals with Martin Luther King, Jr., leading the family band The Staple Singers (of which she is the last surviving member) to become closely associated with the civil rights movement. 'Montreal!' Staples shouted a few songs in, to enthusiastic cheers and an impromptu call and response. 'Yeah!' she called out. 'Yeah!' the audience called back. 'Oh my,' Staples continued. 'We're so happy to be with you, so happy to see all these smiling faces. Yes indeed. I tell you, we've been trying to get here; we finally made it. Well now, we bring you greetings from the Windy City — Chicago, Ill. We've come this evening to bring you some joy, some happiness, inspiration and some positive vibrations.' She did all that and then some. It was two weeks before her 87th birthday and Staples was in fine form, and fine voice. Her trademark rasp hasn't lost any of its depth, and she let it rip on such songs as her 1996 Gospel number I'll Fly Away From Here, love jam I'm Just Another Soldier and an appropriately rugged rendition of Tom Waits's Chicago. She sounded righteous in delivering her old band's 1984 cover of Talking Heads' 1983 hit Slippery People, bringing out the song's Gospel influences without omitting its new wave edge. And she took us back to the '60s while performing the Staple Singers' downright funky 1967 version of Buffalo Springfield's 1966 peace anthem For What It's Worth. Far from mere nostalgia, Staples delivered her lines like she was belting them out for the first time — with passion and feeling. She unleashed another heartfelt 'Yeah!' at song's end. 'Y'all feel alright? Do you feel alright? OK, I feel pretty good myself.' Then came the Staple Singers' 1971 classic Respect Yourself, covered by Bruce Willis for a pop chart smash in 1986. Staples sang it with brooding purpose and Gospel-infused intensity. She took it down a notch for Friendship, her touching 2023 collaboration with Norah Jones, in the final stretch. As satisfying as her performance was, Staples left fans hanging by leaving the Staple Singers best-known song I'll Take You There off the set list. It's not like there wasn't time. The band wrapped up just shy of 10:40 p.m. The stage was booked 'till 11. It was a baffling finish to an otherwise memorable show. Earlier on, Philadelphia R&B artist Bilal exhibited his jazz chops in a far-ranging, virtuosic set on the Rogers Stage. Colombia's Balthvs had warmed up the main stage crowd with a trippy batch of psychedelic instrumental grooves; and at the corner of Jeanne-Mance and Ste-Catherine Sts., their countrymen Kombilesa Mi fused hip-hop chants with frenetic, traditional percussion to intoxicating effect. Meanwhile indoors, Mexico's Natalia Lafourcade, Montreal DJ Kid Koala, Grammy- and Pulitzer Prize-winning North Carolina multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens, Pakistani-American vocalist Arooj Aftab and American jazz freaks Clown Core held court at various venues as the jazz fest got off to a rousing start.
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3 days ago
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Dunlevy: Mavis Staples kicks off 45th Montreal jazz fest with a whole lotta soul
Article content It was a cool night for a hot start to the 45th Montreal International Jazz Festival as Chicago soul legend Mavis Staples showed tens of thousands of music fans how it's done in the opening night free outdoor blowout. Article content Temperatures hovered just under the 20-degree mark, which wasn't so bad, but coming off an oppressive early-summer heat wave, it felt almost like fall. That wasn't enough to stop the throngs from taking in the sights and sounds on the free stages early in the evening. Or to prevent everyone from gathering in front of the main TD stage just after sunset. Article content Article content Staples made her entrance just after 9:30 p.m., bringing along a lifetime of soul singing that started with her siblings when she was just a little girl. Her dad was pals with Martin Luther King, Jr., leading the family band The Staple Singers (of which she is the last surviving member) to become closely associated with the civil rights movement. Article content Article content 'Montreal!' Staples shouted a few songs in, to enthusiastic cheers and an impromptu call and response. 'Yeah!' she called out. 'Yeah!' the audience called back. Article content 'Oh my,' Staples continued. 'We're so happy to be with you, so happy to see all these smiling faces. Yes indeed. I tell you, we've been trying to get here; we finally made it. Well now, we bring you greetings from the Windy City — Chicago, Ill. We've come this evening to bring you some joy, some happiness, inspiration and some positive vibrations.' She did all that and then some. It was two weeks before her 87th birthday and Staples was in fine form, and fine voice. Her trademark rasp hasn't lost any of its depth, and she let it rip on such songs as her 1996 Gospel number I'll Fly Away From Here, love jam I'm Just Another Soldier and an appropriately rugged rendition of Tom Waits's Chicago. Article content She sounded righteous in delivering her old band's 1984 cover of Talking Heads' 1983 hit Slippery People, bringing out the song's Gospel influences without omitting its new wave edge. Article content And she took us back to the '60s while performing the Staple Singers' downright funky 1967 version of Buffalo Springfield's 1966 peace anthem For What It's Worth. Far from mere nostalgia, Staples delivered her lines like she was belting them out for the first time — with passion and feeling. Article content She unleashed another heartfelt 'Yeah!' at song's end. 'Y'all feel alright? Do you feel alright? OK, I feel pretty good myself.'
