Three big summer festivals in Toronto just got canceled

Summer in Toronto is ripe with festivals of all kinds but recently three of the more noteworthy ones have fallen by the wayside.

Reps for the Budweiser County Fair, set for this upcoming weekend at Fort York National Historic Site, sent word yesterday that it had been cancelled.

Last year's inaugural event proved a success, but this year saw the event cancelled due to "unforeseen circumstances." An alternate event was created at the nearby Rock 'n' Horse Saloon with much of the same performance lineup. 

The smaller Hop Chow food and beer block party also said that it would not be returning this year and a new festival over at Ontario Place—Harold's Fish Festival—has been postponed.

What's going on with Toronto events? First Budweiser County Fair was canceled & now HopChow, this is turning into a shitty summer.

— Kelly (@WackyWorldofK) July 10, 2018

Taste of Manila—one of the city's biggest annual celebrations of Filipino culture—announced yesterday that it would not be returning for a fifth year.

"We had to cancel because of the usual financial reasons," said representative Teresa Torralba.

"Our income from the vendors and sponsors are not enough to raise our basic expenses of $250K. These include the rising City of Toronto fees for services, Toronto Police and more. Most of all, we've never had any grants at all."

The city divides events up into categories based on type, length, expected attendance, value of city services and measured benefits, in addition to the various permits and fees required to host a public event.

It also affords grants via an application process submitted one year prior to the event. Last year the city received 358 applications before whittling it down to 42.

"We made do of what we had," said Torralba.