Taste of the Danforth, one of Toronto’s largest street festivals — and traditionally a celebration of Greek food and culture — marked its triumphant return, drawing nearly two million visitors for the weekend event earlier this month.
That came after two years of cancellations and a prolonged effort by Tony Pethakas, chair of Greektown on the Danforth BIA (Business Improvement Area) and its board to bring back the event.
For Pethakas, attracting crowds to Danforth Avenue in the city’s Greektown section was only part of the objective.
Taste was conceived as a way of drawing customers to Greektown businesses, and he has argued that its value should extend beyond the three-day festival, which took place August 7 to 9. This year, 127 local businesses participated, compared with 64 in 2023 and 92 in 2019.
The scale of the turnout confirmed that the festival, which began in 1993, retains a powerful appeal even as the neighborhood around it has changed.
Greek food, music and dance remained central, while vendors and performers increasingly reflected Toronto’s wider cultural mix.
Pethakas has described the BIA’s approach as preserving a recognizable “Greek thread” through a festival serving a much more diverse city.
Sophia Michaelides, a dancer of Cypriot background who grew up attending the Taste of the Danforth, experienced that transformation personally. Returning this year as a performer felt “like coming full circle,” she said. But she also recalled a markedly different event. “The festival was much more Greek when I was growing up. Now it is a mixture of different cultures, which is beautiful, but it does not have the same authentic Greek feeling it once had.”
The festival’s future had become uncertain after the 2023 edition recorded a $257,000 deficit. Rather than pass substantially higher costs on to small businesses through increased BIA fees, Pethakas and the board spent the following two years working to secure the financial support needed for another edition of the festival.
The 2026 revival received $200,000 from the City of Toronto, $200,000 from Ontario and up to $100,000 from the federal government.
The effort to restore the festival had also been underway at City Hall well before this year’s funding commitments. In an interview with this reporter in January 2024, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow was unequivocal about its return.
“We will bring back the Taste of the Danforth. You can be sure of that,” she said. More than two years later, the festival returned to a Danforth whose commercial and demographic character has continued to evolve.
Public safety was another test for the revived event. Inspector Michael Hayles, second in command of Toronto Police Service’s 55 Division, said the service was pleased to work with the city and the Greektown BIA. He noted that visitors from outside Greektown were also experiencing what the neighborhood had to offer.
Pethakas is already looking beyond this year. He said the BIA is discussing possible collaborations with other business improvement areas and festival organizers for 2027, including closer cooperation with Salsa on St. Clair and reciprocal participation between major neighborhood festivals.
After two years spent bringing Taste of the Danforth back onto the street, the BIA’s next task is to convert the momentum of nearly two million visitors into sustained business for the Danforth while building a financial model capable of keeping the festival going.
