Kensington Market comes alive

Citizens filled the streets to the sounds of electronic belly-dancing music. A crowd huddled in a circle around a group of performers who wore belly-dancing costumes and jingled their bells in time to the music. People took photos and clapped after each dancer went into the middle of the circle. Walking down Augusta Avenue, the smell of hot corn tomales and empanadas, samosas and thai spring rolls emanated from each food stand and wafted into the nostrils of passers by. Local artists and vendors sold their jewelry and paintings to visitors and residents who make their homes in Kensington Market.

Pedestrian Sundays in Kensington Market are a time when cars are banished from the streets and people take over the streets to build community. The event in July was called Water! Streams of Consciousness. Over in the wading pool in the Bellevue Square park, children and their parents mingled on a picturesque summer day. The market is always full of sites and sounds – only Pedestrian Sundays are better because the market is enhanced by the presence of more people and a greater feeling of celebration that permeates the space. Imagine what our city streets could be like if they were allowed to flourish the way the Pedestrian Sundays festival has enabled Kensington Market to, each summer since 2004. Over the years, the idea of Pedestrian Sundays has spread to different neighbourhoods, in both Mirvish Village and Baldwin Village. Perhaps the idea is ripe enough to spread across the entire city. Pedestrian Sundays don't propose to permanently change the streets, instead, the website tells us: “they forever change the way you perceive them.” The idea behind Pedestrian Sundays is stated simply on pskensington.ca: “Remove the automobile and the streets become a cultural playground – an expression of our community’s diverse ethnicity, age and interests.” The festival is very DIY and encompasses the human touch that is missing in so many large over-produced festivals that draw people to the city in the summer. It's all about local community and building a sustainable future by going back to the roots of how cultures thrive through local ecologies. As the website explains this link to the global ecological movement: “A community takes back their common space and celebrates a day of cleaner air.” On this particular Sunday in July, many groups came out to build ties with the community, reach out to the public and sell their wares. The Toronto Vegetarian Association, Oxfam Canada, and Spacing magazine were all there. Even Blocks Recording Club, an indie label collective run by artists, set up a little table to sell music by acclaimed local artists such as Owen Pallett, Kids on TV and Katie Stelmanis. Meanwhile, many bands performed - at least one per corner along the route from College to Dundas on both Augusta Ave and Kensington Avenue. The band Escalate had set up outside of the Embassy bar on Augusta and drew quite a crowd. With their jazz-lounge sounds and confident style, the four piece band did an excellent job captivating a self-selected audience of younger hipsters and families alike. Theatrical performers were found along the route too. A puppeteer had set up a little theatre and drew a small crowd toward his interactive performances. Meanwhile, Clay & Paper Theatre had set up a large caravan loaded up with books for sale. Books were only a dollar each and the proceeds went toward funding their cycling oriented puppet squad and other theatre projects. It was like a scene from a bohemian movie, or a blast from the hippie era of the past. People looked at books and made their selection, while a cheerful lady with a hula-hoop twirled around and sang a song. On Nassau Street a group of dancers from the group who run Standupdance.com did modern improvisation on the street. They moved fluidly like water around one another and communicated freely with their bodies as people watched. They paid no attention, and as the postcard they gave me explained, they were there to 'dance like no one is watching.' Further along Nassau Street, a group of musicians played music as a group of ten people played musical chairs. When the music stopped everyone scrambled to find a seat. The music got faster and faster until there were only two women players left. Finally only one declared victory, and another round started. It's not too late to attend the next Pedestrian Sunday. There are several more slated to happen before the end of the season. On August 14th the market will remember the blackout in Toronto, when people enjoyed acoustic music, community meals and low consumption activities. August 28th will mark the market's celebration of Air! The Kensington Community Air Show. “In contrast to the Toronto International Air Show, we fly messages of peace, blow horns and hot air, eat chili, blow bubbles and dance in the street,” says the Pedestrian Sundays website (pskensington.ca). On September 25th, Pedestrian Sundays will celebrate earth and global harvest traditions, and on October 30th, Halloween celebrations will honour ancestors.