Taste of the Danforth cancelled this year but organizers say they plan to hold festival in 2023

Taste of the Danforth is cancelled this year because there is not enough time to adapt the popular festival in Greektown to changes on the street, organizers say.

In a statement on Twitter on Wednesday, the Greektown on the Danforth BIA said it plans to stage the festival next year. The association said its board of management has decided that postponing the event for a year is the best way to ensure its long-term success.

"The short timeline available to adapt the event to the changes in the street meant that Taste of the Danforth in 2022 was at too great a risk of not being as successful as it was in the past," the statement reads.

"Our membership and and the broader community have high expectations for a great event."

The city cancelled Taste of the Danforth in 2020 and 2021, along with other major in-person events, due to COVID-19. Other popular events such as Pride, TIFF, Taste of Little Italy and the Caribbean festival are going ahead this year as pandemic-related public health measures have been lifted.

The BIA said it wasn't clear during the winter months whether the festival would be able to proceed given public health restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Once it was clear that the festival could happen, the BIA said it didn't have the time to adjust the festival to make it fit with changes on Danforth Avenue. 

"So now we're going to take the time, working hand in hand with the city and all our partners, to put on the best Taste of the Danforth ever in 2023," the statement adds.

The BIA doesn't mention which changes were made, but bike lanes have been added in the last two years to part of Danforth Avenue, which includes the stretch of the street where the festival is typically held.

Bike lanes were created on Danforth Avenue from Broadview Avenue to Dawes Road as a pilot project in the summer of 2020, and in December 2021, the city decided to make them permanent.