Queen West Art Crawl Festival Toronto 2025

Toronto's Queen West Art Crawl Festival (QWAC) takes place within Trinity-Bellwoods Park, which is a perfect place to stage the arts festival. This year the festival is the September 20-21 weekend and there are plenty of artists and vendors involved along the paths throughout the southern portion of the large park.

QWAC, which I think of as quack, runs a number of events that benefit both artists and local residents and their two-day multidisciplinary, outdoor arts festival gets over twenty thousand attendees every year. The artists tents are located around and within the circular and bisecting paths while the site also hosts a main stage and kids zone. The event boasts of over 100 artists, live music, food and more.

From QWAC website, "Queen West Art Crawl creates an open, public space for arts and culture in a busy downtown neighbourhood. Our festival includes a 2SLGBT+ friendly Kids' Zone and a Main Stage with Music and Drag that is 50%+ BIPOC. To ensure that underserved populations are strongly represented in our art exhibit, we partner with groups, including Workman Arts and the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto, donating spaces for artists with lived mental health experiences and local Indigenous populations, that are recommended to us through their own communities."

Clay and Paper Theatre fear catcher

Cameron House - the ants stay but the mural changes

It's hard not to love this building on Queen Street West, what with the ants crawling on the building and the murals that make such a bold statement. And the art murals are changed occasionally, one had a woman smoking (Melanie Daniels as Tippi Hedren in Alfred Hitchcock's horror movie The Birds), another was a weird one and then another blonde lady. Now a green eyed woman lifts her glasses and looks out onto the street.

Reflektor art installation at Soho and Queen St West

It's been locked up behind a metal fence for too long, now it is free to mirror the cityscape around it. The shiny, metal art sculpture designed by Jyhling Lee Landscape sits at the corner of Soho Street and Queen Street West in downtown Toronto, sitting beside the MEC store.

The semi-circular, muti-faceted artwork is named Reflektor and really catches the eye as you pass by. I was drawn to the piece and walked up into the circle, taking photos and reflected back into the camera. It's kind of like a giant, metal orange, spread apart in one piece and created in the cyber orange factory.

From behind it looks just like a ball

NXNE Queen West Day Party

Toronto's 2024 NXNE annual music festival takes place in mid-June 2024 and featured a Queen West Day Party on Saturday, June 15 from 11am to 7pm. Performers started on the main stage at 5:55pm and continue into the night and was free for all ages.

The Day Party had vendors and a beverage patio as visitors combined love of music with the magic of Queen Street West. NXNE has emerging talent and established performers and bands play throughout the years and at various locations and only requires one, inexpensive festival pass to go to all shows.

Toronto Graffiti Alley - murals aplenty

Toronto is full of art and a lot of public art is graffiti. In most locations the City of Toronto wants the graffiti removed within 72 hours, 24 hours if it involves hate. But you can always argue that the graffiti is art and deserves to remain. Toronto's most famous graffiti gazing locations is along Graffiti Alley - both north and south of Queen Street West. The graffiti changes often as others tag the art, or paint over a mural. Very little seems permanent.  The Simpson's Moe the bartender cleans a glass in the mural at top.

I think a terminator is grabbing the graffiti art phone

A metal face shines down on the alley

The green lion's head has lasted awhile

The Vegan Fashion Show Toronto

As fall comes to Toronto it is time to check out the new fashions from designers that produce animal-free clothes at the Vegan Fashion Show 2022. The charitable and educational show ("compassion is always in fashion"), produced by Vikki Lenola, benefits Animal Justice. The lineup for the catwalk was Diane Kroe, The Honest Whisper, AVE Bags, Kandy Intimates and Eleanor Geraldine.

Taking place Sunday, October 2nd at the Longboat Hall (part of the Great Hall) at 103 Dovercourt Road in Toronto, just north of Liberty Village. Doors open at 5pm with some shopping and displays, fashions will be on the runway beginning at 6:10pm and the show finishes with a creative dancer starting at 8:30pm. In between you can enjoy some musical performances and guest speaker Camille Labchuk, Executive Director of Animal Justice.

Camille at the mic

I was impressed by the golden jacket made from pineapples and the atmosphere in the hall is perfect for fashion.

There was also some lingerie on the runway.

See more pics after the jump.

The Vegan Fashion Show Toronto 2022 coming soon

Update: See photos from the fashion show on my post here.

A charitable vegan fashion show is coming to Toronto on Sunday, October 2nd to Longboat Hall where visitors that love both fashion and animals can enjoy clothes and designers that support Animal Justice. The goal of the Vegan Fashion Show is to highlight and support animal-free fashion materials and brands.

From the Vegan Fashion Show website, "Love fashion? Love animals? Enjoy a fun fashion show while contributing to meaningful, long-lasting help for animals in Canada! This charitable event showcases vegan collections from multiple designers and brands on the catwalk. Also enjoy vegan vendors, pumpkin spice lattes, musical guests, raffle prizes, photo walls, and learn about plant-based leathers at this year’s next-gen material display. Educational materials are available to take home as well. Featured by Forbes, Harper's Bazaar, and more."

Doors open at 5pm, with shopping and information available until the guest speaker starts at 6pm followed by fashion presentations starting at 6:10pm. The entrance to Longboat Hall is a part of the Great Hall on Queen Street West with the entrance to the event at 103 Dovercourt Road.

Toronto's art public pay phones

While most pay phones have been slowly removed over the years there seem to be more art phones going up around Toronto. I have found one on Queen Street West and two in Graffiti Alley. One of the new phones I found has a Terminator type metal hand holding a handset. I think someone will be back to pick up that hand later.

Another phone in the alley has multiple coloured handsets which I saw some time ago (see my post here).

Then there is the crisis phone along Queen Street West which has been undergoing graffiti and sticker modifications since it has been installed.

The Crisis has been removed and a sticker of a beaver has been placed on the dial.