Star Wars in Concert in Toronto

The Toronto Symphony Ochestra is blasting us into space during the Star Wars Empire Strikes Back in concert at Roy Thomson Hall.

There are even Star Wars cosplayers to pose with and merchandise for sale. It really was a fantastic experience.

Ticket renewals open today for 2025 #indyTO

The 2025 action packed Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto will return to Exhibition Place July 16-18 and today is the beginning of ticket renewal purchases (May 21) while public sales of tickets will begin June 6 (starting at 10am). Fans who purchased 2-Day Grandstand tickets for the 2024 event can look at renewing their seats until June 2nd (5pm) and note that each 2-Day Grandstand ticket renewed for this year's Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto includes a complimentary NTT IndyCar Series Paddock Pass with an $80 value. On June 3rd renewal ticket purchasers can also update or adjust their seat locations if they were looking to move to new available seats.

From IndyTO, "This great Canadian summer tradition returns to Exhibition Place in downtown Toronto for its 37th running on July 18-20, 2025. The NTT INDYCAR SERIES is the headline on-track feature with additional race series including Emzone Radical Cup Canada presented by Michelin sports cars and the next generation of open-wheel stars from USF Pro 2000 and USF2000 Presented by Continental Tire adding to an action-filled schedule. Off track, festival-goers can enjoy numerous interactive displays and diverse food and beverage offerings across the Exhibition Place grounds."

“The anticipation grows for the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto with the start of ticket renewals tomorrow. World-class racing on the downtown city streets and along Lake Ontario will be surrounded by a vibrant festival setting on the Exhibition Place grounds," said Jeff Atkinson, president of the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto. “It’s time again for great racing and exhibits, food and fun for all ages during this premier event on Ontario’s summer calendar.”

Second Harvest Truck Pull Challenge Toronto 2025

Charity fundraising brought together volunteer teams that competed in a truck pulling challenge down at Toronto City Hall on Wednesday, May 14, 2025, raising funds for the Second Harvest's food rescue and redistribution works.

From the Harvest's website, "The Second Harvest Truck Pull Challenge is a unique team challenge that puts your strength and teamwork to the test. Teams of 10 compete head-to-head in a tournament format to pull a 20,000-pound delivery truck across Nathan Phillips Square in the fastest time."

Three trucks were lined up with chains ready for pulling in Nathan Phillips Square

Blossoms still making Toronto beautiful

 

Cherry blossoms have peaked but there is still a lot of beauty in Toronto as other trees, like the Chinese redbud pink blossoms and lilacs come out to play.

Enjoying the atmosphere in Trinity Bellwoods Park.

Neon Riders Toronto Cherry Blossom Ride 2025

Bike riders, roller bladers, skateboarders and a few other modes of transport were are out on the streets of Toronto for the Neon Riders event - Cherry Blossom Ride 2025. Eighty five participants gathered on Friday, May 2nd at Nathan Phillips Square at 7pm before heading off on the first ride of their season.

Riders starting to gather at city hall

From their facebook page, "Neon Riders is a group for Rave night bike rides in Toronto. We usually meet on Thursday evenings at Nathan Phillips Square from May to October. Every ride is posted in the Events section along with a detailed route and pitstops." The ride was originally scheduled for the Thursday but rain forecasted throughout the day necessitated a move to the Friday.

The twenty kilometre night time route took in downtown Toronto's blossom hotspots, starting with a small park on Cherry Street with stops taking in 15 min breaks and mini-raves at several locations.

Stopping at the Toronto Music Garden

The route was described as follows, "We'll be travelling Clockwise on this 20 km route, starting and ending at Nathan Phillips Square.
Pitstops are as follows:
Pitstop #1 - Old Cherry St. and Villiers St. ~ 8:30 pm
Pitstop #2 - Toronto Music Garden ~ 9:30 pm
Pitstop #3 - Princess Margaret Fountain ~ 10:30 pm
Pitstop #4 - Trinity Bellwoods Park. ~ 11:30 pm"

Ontario Place redevelopment continues

Toronto's waterfront theme park known as Ontario Place is for many just memories of what used to exist, from the the children's area to the waterpark and the amusement rides. Then the island was closed in 2012 and a lot of stuff was removed, only the spiral stairs for the water slide and the remains of the flume ride remained, besides the old buildings.

Now it was sad that they closed it for so long without even functioning as an urban park, what a waste of space. Then they opened it once again for small festivals and general use and completed the Provincial Park (Trillium) on the east side of the island. The west side is now closed for the construction works.

A redevelopment was announced in 2021 and the inclusion of Therme Spa certainly made the news (and remains there to this day), then there was the controversial planned relocation of the Ontario Science Centre to the island. Dougie can't catch a break for all his maneuvering! The whole house of cards built to approve the spa has been questioned in the media and a big bombshell landed recently courtesy of 
American newspapers.

Construction is underway and it looks like many of the removals are completed and the pedestrian bridges, pod buildings have been wrapped or covered in scaffolding. Civil grading works are being done on the far west side.

Besides the spa I look forward to the increased public space, walkways and public transit connections. I hope that they don't eventually add a casino to the mix in Ontario Place.

A recycling bin in High Park has "Don't worry Ford can't walk this far" graffiti alluding to the potential redevelopment of High Park but being saved because Ford couldn't make the walk from Ontario Place. Jokes on us because he would just ride a big SUV into High Park.

Dinos in Toronto: Inflatable Dinosaur Rampage

Urban Playground Toronto courts disaster as they attempt to gather and control dinosaurs with a Saturday, April 26, 2025 event called "Inflatable Dinosaur Rampage". This unnatural gathering will lead to nothing good if the dinosaurs get loose, because life finds a way - especially dinosaurs, and they rip locals and tourists alike with their sharp claws and giant, inflatable teeth.

Organizing group Urban Playground Toronto is dedicated to bringing fun into the six with free social events in public spaces and you can find them on facebook. They have put on such exciting activities as the recent Pillow Fight, the Water Gun Fight (for when it gets warmer) and a rousing round of Snow Ball Fighting (for when it gets colder again). Urban Playground's poster for the event is shown at top.

Participants will meet at 1pm by the clock tower in the Grand Plaza outside Union Station along Front Street where they will "Rampage like there is no tomorrow!!!!" as they attack several iconic downtown locations. Will humanity survive this chaos, will the orange guy change his mind about the 51st state?

The first annual rampage was a little sparse on the rampaging and destruction, only one dino showed up. Hopefully the dino pack will come out in force next year.

Toronto 2025 Cherry Blossom watch

Update: May 2, 2025. This is it baby, peak blossom weekend is here. Everywhere I went today the cherry blossoms are popping and crowds are gathering. This weekend will be full of blossom enthusiasts so plan accordingly. I think the easiest place to park and see the blossoms is in Exhibition Place, otherwise bike around and see them all.

High Park blossoms

Mayor Olivia Chow says “Cherry blossoms are soon to be in bloom across the city and I look forward to seeing residents and visitors enjoying them in High Park and multiple locations across Toronto.”

The following City press release talks about the blossoms around town.

"The City of Toronto is predicting that Toronto cherry blossom (Sakura) trees will reach peak bloom later this week due to rising temperatures. Cherry blossoms typically last between four to 10 days, depending on weather conditions. There are several locations across Toronto where the public can enjoy the cherry blossoms including several City parks, the Exhibition Place grounds and some University of Toronto and York University campuses.

More information including a map of locations and accessibility information is available on the City’s Cherry Blossoms website: https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/festivals-events/cherry-blossoms/.

High Park:

Tens of thousands of people come to the blossoming Sakura trees in High Park annually. To help manage visitor volume, there will be no vehicle access or parking inside High Park starting Monday, May 5 for the duration of peak bloom. Vehicle access and parking inside High Park is regularly prohibited during the weekends.

TTC Wheel-Trans vehicles will continue to have access to the park to drop off visitors. An elevator is now available for visitors to use when arriving from the High Park TTC Station.

Enjoy the blossoms and respect the trees:

Visitors are asked to avoid climbing the cherry blossom trees or removing blossoms or branches and use designated bins for litter and recycling.  

City parks contain ecologically sensitive areas meaning it is important to stay on paved pathways and trails to help sustain the long-term health of these areas.

More information on when the High Park cherry blossoms are in bloom is available on the High Park Nature Centre website: https://highparknaturecentre.com/cherry-blossom-watch/.

Support Sakuras:

Cherry trees require regular maintenance and have a finite lifespan. City crews are constantly planting more Sakura trees to replace aging trees.

Exhibition Place has several areas of cherry trees

Queen's Park has some trees out front and also back in the park beside the horsey statue

See more of Toronto's blossoms after the jump.