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Birth of a dead intersection

Best known for being the dry-cleaner district and home to raw food resto Live, you wouldn’t expect to see a street concert on Dupont near Spadina. This intersection offers as much artistic inspiration as a manila envelope.

But a new collective is changing area’s reputation. The Dupont and Spadina Corner Collective recently staged the Light Up Your Alley Street Festival, taking place in a parking space/alleyway just west of Spadina on the south side of Dupont.

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On Saturday, passers-by could hear the rockabilly riffs of The Strumbellas or the percussion-heavy beats of Samba Elegua. Around 13 bands rocked out on a makeshift stage placed just inches away from Dupont. You could tell some bands attracted their usual fans (like The Bag Ladies), but the crowd started to swell once intrigued cyclists or strolling families heard music rarely emanating from a street dominated by Shoppers Drug Mart and subway shelters.

The festival also featured the Really Really Free Market (a table displaying free goodies and services, like massages), face painting, free bike tune-ups, BBQ food, local vendors selling everything from fair trade chocolate to shampoo. As much as the fest strived to be a family event, one exuberant girl stripped topless and danced to the Samba Elegua tunes (shades of the Dyke March, perhaps?).

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Vanessa Butterworth helped organize the fest, and explained why Dupont and Spadina needs this artistic makeover.

“How does an intersection gain credibility? By bringing something special to it. And we think once we start to do these regular activities, people will come here.”

She says this northern tip of the Annex isn’t known as pedestrian or bike friendly, often regarded as merely a gateway to Casa Loma or George Brown. But she knows from experience this area is bursting with creative Torontonians.

Butterworth lives in one of two “community houses” that make up the Collective. Most notably, the house on the southwestern corner of Dupont and Spadina is the hub for several bands rehearsing out of the three-storey house. Walking by on a weeknight, you can often heard cymbals crashing and churning chords echoing from the top-floor apartment.

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The Light up Your Alley Street Festival also served a compilation CD launch for some bands living in the area. The CD is titled Birth of a Dead Medium, and Sunday’s debut festival from this impressive collective might as well be called Birth of a Dead Intersection. [rssbreak]

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