Afrofest back as two-day event after reprieve from city

Statement released by Music Africa, City of Toronto confirms event will once again run for two days.

Thestar.com
March 23, 2016
By Brennan Doherty

After facing a cutback to a single day, Afrofest will again hold two days of concerts in Woodbine Park this year, according to a statement by the event’s organizers and the City of Toronto released on Wednesday evening.

The announcement comes after bickering between Music Africa - the organization who puts on Toronto’s summer festival of traditional African music - and the City of Toronto about noise violations and extended show times in previous years. Usually, the festival runs for two days in July - but the city briefly clawed them back to one this year.

“Afrofest organizers acknowledge that there were some permit violations related to past years of the festival and, the city admits to unclear communication regarding permit end times,” read the statement signed by Councilor Mary-Margaret McMahon of Ward 32, Music Africa president Peter Toh, and director Richard Ubbens of the city’s parks, forestry and recreation department.

Toh praised Councillor McMahon for her efforts in negotiating an agreement between Music Africa and the city.

“The councilor was very co-operative. She really understood our point of view,” said Toh in an interview with CP24 Wednesday evening. Toh did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Star.

It’s currently unclear whether the dispute has impacted Afrofest’s planning and scheduling this year, or what exactly the agreement between both sides constitutes. Toronto Music Advisory Council co-chair Andreas Kalogiannides, who sat in on Wednesday’s meeting, said that the agreement is going to be a return to the festival’s status quo.

“From where I was sitting, the agreement was just the two-day permit is going to be reinstated, and then Afrofest ... is going to comply with the regular permit conditions,” he said.

Returning Afrofest to a two-day schedule was one of the demands being made by Black Lives Matter-Toronto. The group has been encamped at Toronto Police headquarters for the past several days, mainly to demand action over the death of Andrew Loku at the hands of police officers in July 2015.

Wednesday’s release goes on to say that the Toronto Music Advisory Council will be assisting Afrofest and other music events across the city. Kalogiannides said that he’d spoken last week with Toh and offered to connect Afrofest with organizers with his organization.

“Peter (Toh) said they’d be reaching out, because this is the kind of networking and capacity building that they’re looking to do on their own,” Kalogiannides said.

Perceived permit violations have been a recurring issue between Afrofest and the city. Back in 2011, when Afrofest was still playing at Queen’s Park North, the fest was initially denied an event permit by the City of Toronto along with the Freedom Festival because of the size of their audiences. In Afrofest’s case, 50,000 were expected to show up that year.

Afrofest, launched in 1990, is being held on July 9 and 10 this year.