Discovering Bloor West Village, Part 2/7

This weekend, Bloor West Village hosted the annual Ukrainian Festival. Each year, the festival draws a jovial crowd with its impressive singing and dancing events, rides and games for the kids, bar tents for the adults, and tons of food vendors producing more sausages and perogies than you can count.

One of the goofier and undeniably unique events this year included a "Ukrainian Toast-Off." In a nod to the Ukrainian tradition of making grand toasts with the natural vodka accompaniment, a series of participants, including Enza Supermodel, were rounded up and asked to ad-lib toasts to suit various (and humourously improbable) occasions.

The participants were judged by a number of minor media personalities and experts in the field of Ukrainian toasting. The winner and runner-up were awarded gift baskets that included, what else, Ukranian beers, vodkas, and sparkling wines.

The event brought humour and playfulness to a festival that already managed to fall somewhere between boisterous and relaxed, celebrated by a crowd whose proud enthusiasm was completely undeterred by the rain.