David Suzuki Foundation event celebrates local ingenuity and homegrown action with culinary delights and musical parades through four Toronto parks
TORONTO, September 17, 2014 — On Sunday, October 5, the David Suzuki Foundation will host the second annual Homegrown Park Crawl.
The celebratory community event is expected to once again draw more than 1,000 Torontonians for musical parades, eco-activities and great food in four city parks along the former Garrison Creek, in the city’s downtown west end. Also participating in this year’s event is David Suzuki, who is joining the Park Crawl as part of the Foundation’s cross-country Blue Dot Tour.
“The Homegrown Park Crawl is an exciting celebration of great food, local music and nature in our neighbourhoods,” said David Suzuki, co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation. “I’m excited to take part in the parade this year, and I hope Torontonians will join us.”
The Blue Dot Tour marks the launch of a national conversation among all Canadians to ensure that all levels of government recognize our right to live in a healthy environment. The Homegrown Park Crawl is an example of how people are coming together to celebrate the people and places they love.
This year’s event will feature food from more than a dozen of Toronto’s top chefs and restaurants, including Pizzeria Libretto, FRANK Restaurant, Marben, Ursa and The County General. Participants will sample tasty treats while they flow — by foot, bike and portaged canoe — from park to park alongside adventurous local musical acts, including the jazzy six-piece Heavyweights Brass Band, afro-Brazilian stilt-drumming troupe MaracaTall and 16-member “percussion posse” Samba Squad.
Each of the four parks — Christie Pits, Bickford Park, Fred Hamilton Park and Trinity Bellwoods — will have entertainment and eco-activities, with food and drink vendors at Christie Pits and Trinity Bellwoods.
Confirmed food vendors include: Carmen, ChocoSol, Cookie Martinez, Crush Wine Bar, CSI Coffee Pub, Frank Restaurant (AGO), Harvest Kitchen, Marben, Pizzeria Libretto, Scout & Cash Caffe, Tallboys, The County General, Two Bite Saloon and URSA.
The Homegrown Park Crawl will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, October 5, 2014, starting in Christie Pits Park. Proceeds will go to the David Suzuki Foundation’s Homegrown National Park Project, which is tapping local ingenuity to find creative ways to green the Garrison corridor in the city’s downtown-west end. Attendees are requested to bring their own plates and mugs. Limited food tickets are on sale here at www.davidsuzuki.org/parkcrawl.
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For more information, please contact: Jode Roberts at 647-456-9752, @joderoberts or jroberts@davidsuzuki.org