Regent Park Sunday In The Park Festival Report

By -

A report of the Virtual Sunday in the Park Festival

Sunday in the Park is an annual event that takes place usually in the month of August in Regent Park. Typically it is the biggest festival held in the community. Each year the Sunday in the Park festival features music, culture, food, raffles, games and fun activities, for all ages.

This year, due to concerns about Covid -19 and consideration of social distancing, it was decided to hold the 30 Anniversary of Sunday In The Park... virtually....and in September.

Lead by a steering committee comprised of community members, this year’s 30th Anniversary of Sunday in the Park took place on September 19, 2021, by Zoom. The online event featured information on COVID-19 from speakers from the Regent Park Health Centre which included Q&A about vaccination. Break-out rooms were also held for trivia games where residents could win prizes. The event included the playing of an RPTV videos about the the history of Sunday in the Park as told by long-time community member Deany Peters and Sureya Ibrahim. Two viewing stations were set up for TCHC and Market seniors in the community and despite been held over Zoom, community caterers provided 300 meals to registered families.

Despite all the planning, the 2021 Virtual Sunday in the Park did not go well. Last minute changes resulted in the cancellation of planned entertainment that was to be provided by the FOCUS Media Arts Centre. The food which was supposed to be prepared at the Paintbox Bistro was moved to Fred Victor Centre at 40 Oak and unfortunately no one bothered to tell staff there. Furthermore, the kitchen area had to be shared with another cooking program resulting in confusion. That’s not all TCHC staff who were supporting the seniors reported that the seniors attending the viewing stations were bored by the COVID information and that they did not understand the games.

In an evaluation review of the event by the Steering Committee, most members felt that, with the exception of the food, the 2-hour event was largely a failure.

One of the perceived reasons for holding Sunday in the Park on-line was the inability to obtain a permit for the Big Park from the City of Toronto. This however proved to be untrue as a week prior to Sunday in the Park the Emancipation Proclamation Festival organized by Joanne Warner on September 12th, it was held in the Big Park with blessings from the City. A motion to apply to the City to hold another in-person Sunday in the Park Festival in the big Park on October 10, 2021, was turned down by the Steering Committee. 

 


Written by
Adonis Huggins

Journalist
FOCUS Media Arts Centre


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Regent Park Portrayed in Film and Television

By -
Image
Toronto has a rich history of being a go-to shooting location for many television and film production companies. Some notable films shot here over the years include Good Will Hunting (1997), Billy Madison (1998), American Psycho (2000), and X-Men (2000). Regent Park has also had its share of showcases in film. This article aims to review the general content of movie dramas and televisions shows shot in Regent and explore their relationship to the community. Clement Virgo is a director, producer, and writer from Montego Bay, Jamaica. He was born in 1966 and moved to the Regent Park area in Toronto in 1977. During this time Regent Park was generally populated by low-income families and as a hot spot for drugs. Virgo is most recently known for his roles in Greenleaf (2016-2018), The Book of Negroes (2015), and The Wire (2002) as Director and/or Producer. His first feature-length film, however, was Rude (1995), which was filmed almost entirely in the old Regent Park. “The film told...
Read more

What Social Inclusion Means to Me

By -
I had moved into Regent Park only a few days before I saw the pink, fuchsia, strawberry, indigo, yellow, green, neck streamers and sparkling robes worn by children, parents, aunts, uncles, and elders as they marched passed my kitchen door. Soon, the nearby Athletic Grounds was blazing with colour. Although it was the first time I heard them, the intonations on the microphone were recognizable, even to me, as prayers. It was Eid, the concluding celebration after Ramadan. It was a beautiful sight. I am a White Jewish senior and I hunted for a stairless condo for years before I chose to live in Regent Park and then only because a relative did business with the new seniors’ building there. “Regent Park?” a friend exclaimed. “You are going to have ethnic problems.”  “Not I.  I come from a long line of fiery leftie activists.” I replied. Stage four and five of revitalizing this post-war subsidized development into a multi-income community was just beginning and I ju...
Read more

Meet Your Neighbourhood Police Officers – PC Mircea Biga and PC Farzad Ghotbi

By -
Image
Community-based policing is a proactive law enforcement strategy that focuses on building ties and working closely with a community’s members to create partnerships and plans for preventing and reducing crime. While community policing will look differently depending on the community it serves, a central feature is that the same officer patrols and works in the same area on a permanent basis. Currently there are 17 community-based police programs in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), but what most people don’t know is that Toronto’s community policing started in Regent Park in May of 2017. We know this because the original officers involved in setting up the Regent Park community policing program continue to work here today. The officers are PC Mircea Biga, PC Farzad Ghotbi, and PC Edward Parks; the newest officer assigned to the Regent Park community is PC Nigel Thomas (who is replacing PC Melissa Huntley while she is on maternity leave). Symptomatic of the increasing diversity...
Read more