Charity event brings parade of music, food and drink, art through four city parks

TORONTO, SEPTEMBER 23, 2014 — Thousands of Torontonians are expected to join the David Suzuki Foundation’s third annual Homegrown Park Crawl on Sunday, September 27, 2015. The free event will feature a parade led by adventurous musical acts through parks and residential streets along the former Garrison Creek in the city’s downtown west end. At Christie Pits and Trinity Bellwoods parks there will be more music, plus food and drink from some of the city’s top chefs, art and crafts from dozens of local artists and fun kids’ eco-activities.

WHO: The David Suzuki Foundation’s team of volunteer Homegrown Park Rangers, four bands, 20 food and drink vendors, dozens of local artists and community groups and #Gnomezuki. (See full list of musicians, food vendors, groups and performers below).

WHAT: The third annual Homegrown Park Crawl is a celebratory event that will bring participants through four city parks along Toronto’s former Garrison Creek. Crawlers will sample food and drink from some of Toronto’s best restaurants, enjoy kid-friendly activities and crafts and join in musical parades between each park. The event will raise funds for the David Suzuki Foundation’s Homegrown National Park Project (www.davidsuzuki.org/homegrown), which aims to create a green, butterfly-friendly corridor through the city, one fun green intervention at a time.

WHERE: The event will begin at noon at Trinity Bellwoods Park, where there will be food vendors, local groups, art and butterfly craft activities and music from Midnight Vesta. At 2 p.m., local funk band Turbo Street Funk will lead participants from Bellwoods to Fred Hamilton Park, where there will be a brief musical dance performance. Brazilian samba troupe Maracatu Mar Aberto will lead participants through Bickford Park to Christie Pits. At 3 p.m., the parade will end at Christie Pits Park, where there will be food and drink vendors, a dozen community groups and the Christie Pits Art Crawl. Woodshed Orchestra will play while folks enjoy food, drink and art until 6p.m.

WHEN: Sunday, September 27, 2015, 10 a.m. — 6 p.m.

The event is free admission, rain or shine. Food tickets are available online until the event at www.davidsuzuki.org/parkcrawl. Limited food and drink tickets will be available onsite, cash only.

Food and drink vendors: Banjara Indian Cuisine, Chocosol, Cookie Martinez; CSI Coffee Pubs; FRANK restaurant; Harvest Kitchen; Jon’s Pops; Le Dolci; My Crème Caramel; One Love Vegetarian; Pizzeria Libretto; Southbrook Vineyards; Steamwhistle Brewery; Tallboys; The County General; The Vegan Duchess; Treeline Catering; Two Bite Saloon; Wenona Craft Beer Lodge

Musical acts, performers & interventions: Midnight Vesta; Turbo Street Funk; Maracatu Mar Aberto; The Woodshed Orchestra; Julia Aplin Dance; Biozone (Centre for Applied Bioscience and Bioengineering); Love Lettering Project; ParkHive; Christie Pits Art Crawl

Community groups: David Suzuki Foundation; LEAF; Toronto Beekeeper’s Co-op; Fresh City Farms; Toronto Master Gardeners; Friends of Roxton Road Parks; Toronto Green Community; Park People; Friends of Christie Pits Park; Beekeeper’s Naturals; North American Native Plant Society

For further information, please visit www.davidsuzuki.org/parkcrawl or contact:
Jode Roberts, David Suzuki Foundation, 647-456-9752, jroberts@davidsuzuki.org, @joderoberts