Kensington Market's long-running Pedestrian Sundays paused amid 'vendor war'
After cancelling May's festival, BIA says it'll re-assess plans for future with community input
People hoping to enjoy Kensington Market's first pedestrian-friendly street festival of the season were out of luck Sunday, after the local BIA put the event on ice.
The Kensington Market Business Improvement Area (BIA) paused its popular Pedestrian Sunday for the month of May, citing safety concerns over illegal vendors and a rising "commercial tone" that shifted the festival away from its purpose.
The vibrant street festival has been going on for two decades, monthly from May to October. With traffic not being allowed on most roads on the last Sunday of each month, business owners and pop-up vendors normally set up shop outside as pedestrians roam freely.
What started as a tradition to celebrate Kensington's artistic culture turned into a "vendor war," according to Rafi Ghanaghounian, who owns Cafe Marallo.
"Vendors [are] throwing each other's tables around, people sleeping over the night before to claim a spot, like it got really aggressive," he told CBC Toronto.
An influx of vendors without permits created crowding and complicated logistics while leading to "unregulated food sales and unauthorized substances," the BIA said in a release announcing this month's cancellation.
"These issues pose liability risks and create unfair competition for local levy-paying businesses that contribute year-round to the community and to [Pedestrian Sundays]," the release said.
Outside vendors have regularly taken up space in front of businesses, said Polo Miranda, who owns the silver jewelry store Silver With Attitude.
"It never stops," Miranda said. "They don't respect nothing, they don't respect boundaries, and they do whatever they want."
The BIA, which did not respond to requests for comment from CBC Toronto over the weekend, said in its release that it will assess plans for the festival in the future following community surveys.
The festival has become more gentrified as Kensington becomes a bigger tourist spot, festival co-co-ordinator Pouria Lofti previously told CBC Radio's Here and Now.
"It's lost a lot of its cultural and artistic aspects ... that sense of community involvement," he said.
"Hopefully we'll get a better sense of how people feel," he said, speaking about the BIA's community surveys. "But I do get the sense that the attitude towards the festival has become more negative in the neighbourhood compared to several years ago."
CBC Toronto reached out to some of the members listed on the BIA's website, but did not hear back before publication.
"While we understand that festivals naturally evolve, we believe it's time to realign with the spirit that made [Pedestrian Sundays] special in the first place," the BIA release says.
Joy Zubair, who owns the vintage store Boho Chachkies, says that while the cancellation caught her off-guard she hopes the BIA will get the community more involved in its reshaping.
She said she typically lost sales during the festival because of how the street closures were structured and unauthorized vendors bringing unfair competition.
"Even right now during the week, there are vendors just setting up and selling stuff on Temu on the side of the road, again, taking away from businesses that pay rent and pay taxes," she said, referencing the Chinese-owned shopping app where people often buy and resell cheap trinkets at a higher price.
"People come at like five in the morning. They set up in front of your store. So you can't even use the front of your store to sell your own products or advertise," she said.
Visitors hope for a swift return
Vanessa Fralich brought her toddler on his bike to the market on Sunday, not realizing the event had been scrapped.
"I was hoping to go out on the streets and not worry about squeezing ourselves onto the sidewalk with everyone else," she said.
Robert Quance, who also visited the market Sunday, said he hopes organizers figure out how to reshape the event, though he doubts they will figure it out in a month before the next festival date in June.
"I think it's a real shame cause it brings in lots of tourists and locals as well. I come to it all the time, so I've spoken to a lot of people in the community and people are upset," he said.
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