Following a nearly four-decade run in Little Portugal, the annual Portugal Day Parade has been pushed out of the neighbourhood this year due to scheduling issues with the 2025 edition of Do West Fest.
The parade made its Toronto debut in 1987 to celebrate Portugal Day, which falls annually on June 10. The parade is always held as close to June 10 as possible, becoming a focal point on Dundas St. W every year except for from 1992-94, when the parade went along Dufferin to Ontario Place.
Making its debut in Toronto back in 2013 as Dundas West Fest, Do West Fest is an annual celebration of music, arts, food, fun, and community presented by Little Portugal Toronto BIA. This year’s event will take over 16 blocks of Dundas St. W, from Ossington Ave. to Lansdowne Ave.
José Eustáquio, parade organizer and Executive President of The Alliance of Portuguese Clubs and Associations of Ontario (ACAPO), explained that during the COVID-19 Pandemic, ACAPO negotiated a memorandum of understanding with the Little Portugal BIA and Do West Fest regarding the two events.
“Because we’re a non-for-profit. We operate with volunteers, and we thought merging with [the] Little Portugal BIA and Do West Fest would allow the event to continue,” he explained.
But he says that the 2023 and 2024 parades were difficult, due to the conditions and provisions provided by Do West Fest organizers, as well as the way the neighbourhood is set up.
“It’s not conducive to a cultural movement, a cultural parade like ours.”
He said issues include having to start the parade earlier in the morning to accommodate the festival, and vendor tents from the festival blocking the view of the parade.
MOVING TO ST. CLAIR AVENUE
Following last year’s event, the not-for-profits called a meeting and voted unanimously to relocate this year’s parade.
The annual parade is now slated for June 7, and this year it will run along St. Clair Ave. from Oakwood Ave. to the entrance of Earls Court Park around Caledonia Rd. where ACAPO will be hosting a festival from Friday through Sunday.
“We always had an agreement that the Portugal Day Festival and Parade would be one week, and Do West Fest would be another. When they moved their event to our weekend, that’s when it became a little bit disruptive and impossible to work with,” Eustáquio explained.
“If they continued to be on alternative weekends, I’m sure we could have continued to stay on Dundas.”
Eustáquio says that the Little Portugal BIA tried to maintain the peace between the two organizations.
“They attempted very hard through their leadership to maintain some harmony and keep us on Dundas, but Do West Fest operates as a separate entity and from what I can tell, the individuals running the street festival are all about profit generating,” he said.
“They really, at the core, don’t care about Dundas West at all. They come in, they do a three-day event, make as much money as they can, and then leave.”
He’s also pointing the finger at the city.
“Some politicians promote BIA and street festivals, in reality [the city] doesn’t assist whatsoever in making these things possible,” Eustáquio explained. “If anything, they’re curtailing them from progressing to the point that, with increasing costs, very little, almost no support. Slowly, if you look at the agenda of events in the city in the last 20 years, a good chunk of them have disappeared.”
He says that this is either due to bureaucracy or escalating costs for things like waste management costs and barricading costs.
“So, we have gone from a parade that used to cost about $38,000-$40,000 to over $130,000, and we’re not-for-profits,” the president explained.
In a statement to Now Toronto, Do West Fest and the Little Portugal BIA acknowledged the Portugal Day Parade’s decision to relocate to St. Clair West.
“While we’ve valued our vibrant collaboration in the past, we understand the challenges of hosting both events on Dundas Street West during the same weekend and respect the need for change,” the statement explained.
“We had every intention and desire to keep the parade on Dundas, but we respect the decision to move.”
“We are committed to preserving the spirit of Portuguese cultural celebration, which has been central to both Do West Fest and the Portugal Day Parade,” the statement continued, adding that the organizations look forward to continued dialogue and future opportunities to support the Portugal Day Parade.
