Toronto’s Little Portugal neighbourhood is gearing up to kickstart this year’s summer festival season with the return of its beloved Do West Fest from June 6 to 8, promising a vibrant weekend full of local art, food, music and cultural celebration.
The formerly known “Dundas Street West Fest,” is known as the city’s “official start to summer,” and will be covering 16 blocks of downtown Toronto from Shaw St. to Lansdowne Ave., celebrating its 12th edition over its three-day run.
“The festival amplifies the voice of local creators, and it reinvests directly into the neighbourhoods that shape the city’s identity,” Anah Shabbar, managing director of Do West Fest, told Now Toronto on Wednesday.
And the best part? Entry to the festival is free.
Guests can expect to see over 200 brick-and-mortar vendors, 200 additional visiting vendors, and more than 20 licensed patios, according to Do West Fest.
“These are BIA members who make up the heart of little Portugal Toronto’s business improvement area. It’s a diverse art loving small business community, so their pop ups usually feature a variety, a wide range of offerings, everything from some of the city’s best DJs to live band karaoke and endless food offerings,” Shabbar said.
Festivalgoers can also anticipate street performances, mural paintings, pottery workshops, dance parties, and three music and cultural stages – ensuring every one of its blocks embodies its longstanding, vibrant history.
While at the Lulaworld stage, visitors can look forward to experiencing a masterful mix of diverse sounds. Musical entertainment from Afrique Like Me, the 12-piece orchestra Lengaïa Salsa Brava, and Reggaddiction will be featured, among other artists.
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The Transmit stage will be offering performances from Canadian hardcore punk legends F**ked Up and newer acts like Toronto-based Orbital Ensemble, a Brazilian psych fusion group, Shabbar added.
On the community stage, festivalgoers can expect to see performances from “hyper local artists,” a calling aimed at showcasing the talent that lives in the cherished neighbourhood.
Alongside music, visitors will see the walls of Dundas West come to life at the Open Air Museum, an energetic street-level art gallery returning to deliver a one-of-a-kind immersive experience – one reminiscent of the area’s street mural culture.
“At each intersection, we have some of the city’s most well-known street artists doing some large-scale paintings, so those are not on walls, but temporary panels,” Shabbar told Now Toronto.
And that’s not all. “We’re actually animating the Green P parking lot, which is just southeast of Dundas and Ossington, and it’s going to be a takeover by the Toronto queer market – in celebration of Pride Month,” Shabbar added.
But Do West is more than a street party, it’s a celebration of the neighbourhood’s unique creativity and cultural fusion.
“The festival really shapes the way people feel about the city, and creates a sense of belonging for Torontonians and visitors of a lot of different backgrounds,” Shabbar said.
The well-loved street festival has become a summertime calendar marker, drawing thousands of people to its BIA grounds each year. The festival saw an estimated 750,000 people in 2024, and is anticipating more than one million visitors this year.
“It’s like a ‘choose your own adventure,’ or ‘stumble into your own adventure’ type festival,” Shabbar added.
Do West Fest will run from 6 to 11p.m. on Friday, June 6, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday, June 7, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, June 8. More information about the festival can be found here.
