pc28����

The decision to pause the 21-year-old festival comes amid growing concerns about the event that transforms Kensington Market into a bustling, car-free hub of music, art, food, and local business on the last Sunday of each month between May and October. The BIA statement cited an influx of outside and unpermitted vendors, unregulated food sales, unauthorized substances and an increasingly commercial tone as the primary reasons.

“We decided that the best thing is just to do a reset,” said Pouria Lotfi, one of the festival co-ordinators. “And make people in the neighbourhood, the businesses, the residents, the people who call the market a home, make them think about how they want to rethink or reimagine the festival.” 

Lotfi said the spirit of Pedestrian Sundays has shifted since its 2004 launch when it centered on the Kensington Market community, its culture, and a push for a more walkable city.

“While we understand that festivals naturally evolve, we believe it’s time to realign with the spirit that made (Pedestrian Sundays) special in the first place,” the BIA statement says. 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Lotfi said the event has seen an increased number of outside vendors who “don’t have the community’s best interests at heart” and compete with local businesses who pay “huge property taxes, increasing rents and the BIA levies.” 

The space has become crowded with vendors selling an array of goods from cannabis to trinkets that has altered the market’s cultural and artistic vibe, Lotfi added.

“Many of them don’t have respect for the neighbourhood in general, the volunteers in the festival and other businesses,” he said. “It’s been hard to regulate them.”

Another major issue is that the festival runs on a “shoestring budget” of about $15,000 per event, funded by BIA levies, with volunteers receiving only minimal pay, Lotfi said.

Pedestrian Sundays received funding from the city in the past but has not secured financial assistance from “any level of government” since the pandemic, he explained. 

“I think the festival has been taken for granted and in the sense that it’ll just happen,” Lotfi said. “One of the outcomes we’d like to see from this is that the community at large, the neighbourhood businesses and residents take more ownership and responsibility for the events.”

While the revamp of Pedestrian Sundays is still in its preliminary stages, Lotfi said some ideas being tossed around include hosting fewer but higher-quality events and dedicating more space to musicians and artists over vendors.

“We’re hoping that it won’t continue as it is. It’ll continue in a way that’s just better for everyone,” Lotfi said.