{"id":484644,"date":"2026-02-19T05:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T05:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/484644\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T05:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T05:56:11","slug":"taste-of-the-danforth-set-to-return-this-summer-organizer-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/484644\/","title":{"rendered":"Taste of the Danforth set to return this summer, organizer says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Danforth-Greektown BIA Chair Tony Pethakas shares how support from the City of Toronto and Premier Doug Ford has put Taste of the Danforth back on track. <\/p>\n

The Taste of the Danforth is set to return this summer, organizers say, following Ontario Premier Doug Ford\u2019s offer to revive the festival.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Taste of Danforth is back on track for 2026. We can confirm that it will be happening this year,\u201d Tony Pethakas, the chair of the Greektown on the Danforth business improvement area (BIA), told CP24 on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re super excited about everybody coming to visit us at this year\u2019s Taste.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pethakas shared with CP24 that the festival is scheduled to take place from Aug. 7 to 9.<\/p>\n

The popular summertime event, which typically takes place during the second weekend of August in the city\u2019s Greektown neighbourhood, has been cancelled for the last two years.<\/p>\n

In 2024, organizers cited funding constraints as the reason why they put the annual street festival on hold. Last summer, however, no official reason was given and the event was quietly pulled for a consecutive year.<\/p>\n

Pethakas said the BIA had already begun talking with the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Gaming for possible funding this year, so he was pleased to hear the premier\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis announcement today was truly something to celebrate,\u201d Pethakas said.<\/p>\n

During an unrelated news conference on Wednesday morning, the premier said he misses Taste of the Danforth, which was first held in 1993 and draws upwards of a million people each year to the area, and is prepared to have his government provide some funding to bring it back. <\/p>\n

\"\"Taste of the Danforth People attend Taste of the Danforth in this file photo. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad grew up on the Danforth. He\u2019s a Danforth guy his whole life. He said he was an east ender,\u201d the premier said during \u201coff-script\u201d remarks directed at Toronto-Danforth MP Julie Dabrusin, who was also in attendance at the Ontario Line announcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI miss the Taste of the Danforth so I will commit. I\u2019ll talk to our friend, the boss there (Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow), and I\u2019ll see if we can put money in there to revitalize the Taste of the Danforth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford went on to say, however, that Toronto must also step up to help.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Mayor, you aren\u2019t getting off scot-free; you put a little bit in but we\u2019ll put a little more in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019ll commit to that as long as we get the partnership with our other colleagues here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"CTV Toronto: Taste of the Danforth Toronto’s annual Taste of the Danforth street festival takes over Danforth Avenue. <\/p>\n

Chow did not implicitly respond to Ford\u2019s offer. During his remarks, Chow interjected, saying. \u201cIt\u2019s happening this summer,\u201d adding that Toronto would support Taste of the Danforth financially as well.<\/p>\n

She has said the city is working to bring back the event and funding has been set aside in this year\u2019s budget for it.<\/p>\n

City \u2018always been ready\u2019 to help: councillor<\/p>\n

Late Wednesday afternoon, Toronto-Danforth Coun. Paula Fletcher said the city has \u201calways been ready to help bring back the Taste whenever Greektown was ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe province now willing to help too moves the needle to start the countdown to August. Opa!!,\u201d Fletcher wrote in a message to CP24.<\/p>\n

Taste of the Danforth quietly cancelled for the second straight year For the second year in a row the beloved festival won\u2019t be filling up the street of Toronto\u2019s Greektown neighbourhood, the reason why has yet to be confirmed. <\/p>\n

Last August, the Ward 14 rep said the person who organizes Taste of the Danforth wasn\u2019t available, resulting in the cancellation of the 2025 edition. Fletcher adds that the Greektown on the Danforth BIA felt it couldn\u2019t successfully take on an event of this magnitude on its own.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is unfortunately the only festival that hasn\u2019t made it out of COVID but a lot of people miss it so much,\u201d she said at that time.<\/p>\n

Fletcher went on to say the BIA would need to keep looking at how it can bring Taste of the Danforth back to the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city is willing to step up and help the BIA in whatever way possible to have a successful Taste (of the Danforth) because it is a festival loved by so many, in the province of Ontario, not just Toronto,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally it is up to the BIA, the Greektown BIA, to say, \u2018We\u2019ve got a plan. We\u2019ve got a festival that we\u2019re planning to run in \u201926. We\u2019re starting early. Let\u2019s talk,\u2019 and that hasn\u2019t happened yet. My fingers are crossed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fletcher said Taste of the Danforth is the only festival in the city that hasn\u2019t returned since the pandemic and everyone is \u201crooting for (it) to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m behind that BIA all the way if they decide to go in 2026,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Taste of the Danforth underway CTV News Channel: Taste of the Danforth underway What to expect at this year\u2019s festival<\/p>\n

When asked what visitors could expect at this year\u2019s festival, Pethakas said, \u201ca big Greek party.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Taste like one we remember\u2014back to its roots, celebrating the small businesses of Greektown, celebrating our culture, celebrating the multiculturalism that is Toronto and now Greektown as well,\u201c he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome visit us. Come drink with us. Come eat with us. Come and enjoy the festival with us,\u201d Pethakas added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Danforth-Greektown BIA Chair Tony Pethakas shares how support from the City of Toronto and Premier Doug Ford has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[712,49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-484644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}