Searching Toronto » Toronto Winter Events | Special Event and Street Festivals

The Cavalcade of Lights

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:26:46 +0000

Cavalcade of Lights
Nathan Phillips Square
100 Queen Street West
When: Late Nov – Dec
416-338-0338

The Cavalcade of Lights was created in 1967 to showcase Toronto’s newly constructed City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square. The festival is a month long holiday celebration that traditionally falls on the final weekend of November to kick-off the holiday season and runs through to December.

When the event was first introduced, it was only a one day gathering. Since 2002, the Cavalcade of Lights has turned into a month long festival starting with the official illumination of the Square and giant Christmas tree with over 300,000 festive lights!

Along with the lightning of Toronto?s official Christmas tree, the Cavalcade of Lights festival also offers, fireworks, live musical performances and Saturday night skating parties to live music at Nathan Phillips Square’s famous outdoor rink.

Beyond Nathan Phillips Square, the Cavalcade of Lights festival spans city wide, illuminating neighbourhoods and tourist attractions across Toronto.

Cavalcade of Lights Hours

Starting from the final weekend of November to and through to December, the festivals peak hours are Saturdays at 7:00pm when all the live musical performance, fireworks and skating parties start.

Directions and Map to the Cavalcade of Lights

By Car

From the Don Valley Parkway (DVP): Head south on the DVP, take the Richmond St exit, merge onto Eastern Ave and make a slight right keeping to Richmond St. Make a right on Power St and a left on Queen St. Nathan Phillips Square will be on your right hand side once you pass Yonge St.

From QEW / Gardiner Expressway: Head East on QEW which turns into the Gardiner Expy, Take the Spadina Ave exit, Turn left at Spadina Ave, Turn right at Queen St W, Nathan Phillips Square will be on your left hand side once you pass York St and just before Bay St.

By Public Transit

Nathan Phillips Square is located just west of Queen Subway Station. Take the Yonge (Yellow line) to Queen Station.

Map of Cavalcade of Lights Location

Video of Cavalcade of Lights

Contact Cavalcade of Lights

Email: accesstoronto at toronto.ca
Tel: 416-338-0338

Winterlicious

admin — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 08:09:08 +0000

Winterlicious
First 2 Weeks of Feb
Festival Type: Food

Winterlicious is a food festival that runs during the first 2 weeks of February. The festival goes on throughout the city at participating restaurants. Some of Toronto’s top restaurants offer prix fixe menus with starters, entrées and desserts. The prices during the Winterlicious food festival range from $15, $20 or $30 for lunch and $25, $35 or $45 for dinner, with drinks and gratuity being extra.

This food festival promotion originally began in 2003 with 35 participating restaurants. The event was created to boost restaurant business in Toronto during a typically slow time of year. Winterlicious also helped Toronto recover from the tourism decline in 2003 that occurred from the SARS outbreak.

Summerlicious is a similar event that runs during the summer days of July. Both events have grown rapidly since they were first introduced in 2003. By 2009, Winterlicious had 150 participating restaurants.

The special events department of Toronto runs Winterlicious and selects which restaurants are allowed to participate. There are several standards each restaurant must meet if they are to be considered as part of the festival. Some of the requirements are certain pricing keeping with festival standards, a clean health inspection record, and good reviews from prominent Toronto restaurant review guides. Restaurant chains are normally only allowed to submit one location for consideration.

Winterlicious Prices

Participating Toronto?s restaurants offer three-course prix fixe menus at one of three price point categories:

$15 Lunch and/or $25 Dinner

$20 Lunch and/or $35 Dinner

$25 Lunch and/or $45 Dinner

Winterlicious Restaurant Locations

This winter food festival is held at various participating restaurants all over the city of Toronto. For a list of participating restaurants, visit Winterlicious?s official website

Winterlicious / WinterCity Video

WinterCity

admin — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 07:45:04 +0000

Wintercity
When: Late Jan – Feb
Length: 14 days

Toronto’s WinterCity Festival is a 14-day city-wide celebration of Toronto?s culture, creativity and cuisine. The festival first started in 2003 and is a combination of 3 festivals, the WOW series, The Warm up and Winterlicious.

The WOW Series is a free series that takes places outdoors at Nathan Phillips Square featuring spectacular performances from around the globe geared towards families.

The Warm Up Series takes place at indoor venues across downtown Toronto featuring multi-media events and performances geared towards both family and mature audiences.

Winterlicious is a very popular restaurant promotion including over 150 Toronto participants. It also includes unique culinary events featuring demonstrations and market tours.

The city of Toronto has a long history of celebrating winter. The Wintercity festivals start in Late January and run into mid February.

Location of Wintercity Festival

The WOW series is located at Nathan Philips Sqaure

The Warm Up Series is located at various Toronto Attractions

Winterlicious is located at participating Toronto Restaurants

Video of Wintercity Festival