Harbourfront Centre cancels outdoor events through Labour Day due to COVID-19 lockdown

Yorkregion.com
May 5, 2020
Garnet Fraser

Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre, known for its slate of popular open-air cultural events during the summer, announced Monday that this year’s entire slate through Labour Day is cancelled as part of the COVID-19 pandemic response.

Cancelled festivals so far include Canada Day celebrations, Island Soul, Habari Africa, Barbados on the Water, TAIWANfest, Ashkenaz Festival, and concerts featuring musicians including Indigo Girls, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Lee “Scratch” Perry and more. The centre states that its outdoor summer events on the lakeshore, many of them free, draw millions of visitors annually -- at the very least a substantial share of the 17 million visits from 2.5 million visitors per year that Harbourfront clams.

“We are making this difficult decision out of an abundance of caution to protect the health and safety of our staff, the artists involved and our visitors,” said Harbourfront CEO Marah Braye. “We are disappointed, but health and safety will always be our top priority.”　　

Toronto had already cancelled all permits for large gatherings, cultural and otherwise, through June 30. Harbourfront’s shows join the Fringe Festival and the Toronto Caribbean Carnival, broadly known as Caribana, among the events after that date that have also been cancelled. (Island Soul is a celebration of Caribbean music and culture that runs on the same August long weekend as Caribana.)

Harbourfront cited the recommendations of Toronto and Ontario public health authorities, Health Canada, and the recently announced Government of Ontario’s new road map for safely reopening the province as the spur for the decision.　

Braye said Harbourfront’s staff will try to create “new and stimulating ways to share in the diversity and cultures of the communities that make up our great city.”