Downsview Park will soon play host to an 875-foot vinyl sheet covered in water. That’s right, there’s a giant slip-and-slide coming to Toronto.
On July 18 and 19, slide-goers will arrive at the park in their bathing suits, with inflatable tubes in hand, ready to whizz down the hill for Toronto’s first Slide The City event. In addition to the oversized childhood dream come true, there will be food and drink vendors and live music to keep the good times rollin’ all weekend long.
“Naturally, as the name of the event would suggest, we try to hold our events in downtown, urban areas,” organizer Wyatt Grow says. But finding a place to put the slide was a challenge: with the Pan Am Games, and the city’s myriad of weekend street festivals happening at the same time, venue space was limited. Not to mention the fact that Toronto doesn’t have many suitable hills in the downtown core to begin with. Grow says they hope to find space in the heart of the city for the summer of 2016.
The location doesn’t seem to be a problem for Torontonians: more than 4,000 people have already paid their fees and secured a spot.
Prices for pre-registration can be found here (USD) for one slide or three. However, organizers say you can pay (in Canadian dollars) to register upon arrival at the site, though you will pay more.
For tamer sliders, there is a lane for children and parents. But each individual must ride on their own for safety purposes, and anyone under 18 must have a guardian sign for them to be able to ride. Riders must be over 46 inches (117 cm) tall, and you also must go down on a tube. If you don’t have one, Slide the City has packages that include tubes and they’ll have tubes onsite for purchase.
As part of Slide the City’s mission, they’ve partnered with Big Brothers Big Sisters Toronto. A portion of the proceeds from this splashing event will go back into helping Toronto’s youth.
“We want to make a difference while we’re making memories,” says T.R. Gourley, co-founder of Slide the City.
Anyone interested in volunteering with registration, helping sliders get on and off the slide, or just generally helping out with the event are encouraged to get in touch with Big Brothers Big Sisters Toronto.
Along with the charitable component to the organization, Slide the City recognizes the amount of water it will take to put on an event like this. Their website has a page that encourages participants to reduce water-usage in their homes.
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