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Business owners on Geary Avenue are turning their disappointment over the cancellation of the annual Geary Art Crawl into something special: a block party.
The crawl was initially scheduled to take place on Sept. 20, but was cancelled due to a lack of funding from sponsors and an ongoing major construction on Geary Avenue, according to an Instagram post by the event’s organizers, who said proceeding would be “unrealistic.”
“Unfortunately, we were kind of thrown for a loop,” said Billy Wild, owner of Division 88, an event rental space, and a resident of Geary Avenue, a popular street in Toronto’s west end.
That’s where Wild said owners got the idea to put up their own money for their own Sept. 20 party.
“If we are at least in control of this, we can worry about our own sponsorship,” he said.
The block party promises concerts, art battles and a variety of diverse foods from restaurants and bars in the area. Wild anticipates that his business will lose money for sponsoring the event since there is no budget allocated for performers like artists, musicians, DJs and security personnel.
“It is their source of livelihood; if we can’t pay them, then I don’t think it is fair to ask them to support our businesses,” he said.
Niv Shimshon, front-of-house manager at Parallel Brothers restaurant, said he is excited to bring his special sandwiches and shawarmas to the party.
“There’s going to be an alcohol cart, if people grab a cocktail, they can also grab sandwiches,” he said.
The Block Party is not a replacement for the Geary Art Crawl, but an opportunity for businesses to showcase their unique businesses and do something special for the community.
They’re hoping for a large turnout of people. “If all goes well, we will do it again once or twice a year,” said David Everitt, owner of Paradise Grapevine Winery.
“We are all friends and we love to support each other,” he said.
This article was created with the use of Otter AI for transcription
