A pellet gun shooting at AfroFest Toronto forced the event to end early on Saturday and caused a huge stampede of scared festival-goers.
Over the weekend, the city’s annual AfroFest took place at Woodbine Park where thousands of locals and visitors gathered to celebrate African music and culture. The three-day festival included over 45 performances of different genres, more than 90 vendors and attracted over 100,000 visitors.
On Saturday night, as the festival was nearing its end, panic broke out during Congolese singer Awilo Longomba’s set.
Toronto police responded to the area shortly before 10:30 p.m. At the scene, they said a group of teenage boys were shooting people with pellet guns, which led to hysteria amongst the crowd.
Following the incident, police advised the public to stay out of the area.
In a tweet posted on X, police confirmed that multiple people were shot and had minor injuries. Police say at least seven teenage boys between 15 and 16 years old dressed in all black were involved.
In an update on Monday, police told Now Toronto there were no arrests made following the incident.
Now Toronto reached out to AfroFest for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
The overall experience left many festival-goers traumatized and even left a few bruised from the incident.
“Everybody was just running for themselves. Some people fell, including myself, and we got back up, and I was with a whole bunch of my friends and we were so scared because we didn’t know what was going on, and everybody was just trying to run, and leave the event. Even the barricades were knocked down,” attendee Yvonne Nkemitag said in an interview with Now Toronto.
In addition to several people being knocked down, Nkemitag says she also witnessed a young woman faint from the ordeal.
“There was a person that fainted in front of us and luckily a whole bunch of people actually went to go and help her, which was very good, but that was also very scary, because I think she fainted due to being so overwhelmed,” she explained.
“There were a lot of people, trying to run and leave in all different directions, and things were being knocked down. People were falling. So, when that lady fainted, people actually took the time to go back and help her and make sure that she was OK. It was very chaotic,” she continued.
Nkemitag says she’s been attending the festival since she was 16 years old and has been going every year with the exception of 2020-2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.
“This was the first time that this has ever happened. I’ve been back when the festival was only on Saturday and Sunday. Nothing like this has ever happened at AfroFest because it’s a very family-friendly focused event, and it’s usually positive vibes. So, when I saw people running for their lives, it was very traumatic, because I couldn’t believe something like this would happen at AfroFest,” she said.
Despite this, she wants to return to AfroFest and hopes organizers can increase security for next year.
“The best thing to do is maybe just have more security, like more visibility walking around, you know, because there was police there, but I only saw police, like once or twice, so maybe more visible security guards, more police just on standby, just watching, like walking around to make sure that everything’s OK,” she said.
Other people who attended the festival also shared similar experiences online.
“This is what caused the stampede yesterday @Afrofest. The most scary thing I’ve ever experienced,” one X user said.
“One minute you’re dancing Awilo Longomba and having the best time and the very next minute you’re running for your life.. scary #afrofest,” another user said.
“Insane. I was there…I’m still in shock,” another user commented.
