As the summer festival season approaches in Toronto, festival organizers, event planners, and city officials convened at the Toronto Festival & Event Safety Summit to discuss strategies for ensuring safety amidst rising security costs. Mayor Olivia Chow emphasized the city's resilience, stating, "By gosh, if we have to curtail our activities because of fear? Absolutely not. That’s not who we are as a city."
Approximately 150 festival organizers and security experts gathered at the summit to explore various topics, including the collaboration between emergency services and event producers, the role of safety consultants, and barrier measures aimed at hostile vehicle mitigation. This term refers to the use of concrete blocks or buses as barricades at events.
Charlotte Brookes, the National Event Director for the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon, highlighted the use of "M-V barriers," which are specifically designed for vehicle mitigation. She mentioned that the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) deploys different vehicles, such as buses and city trucks, in strategic locations to enhance safety measures.
The summit's discussions were particularly poignant given the recent Lapu Lapu tragedy in Vancouver, which claimed the lives of 11 individuals, including nine women and two men, and left 32 others injured. This incident occurred one month prior, when accused driver Kai-Ji Adam Lo allegedly plowed through a crowd attending the Lapu-Lapu Day festival in East Vancouver. Mayor Chow expressed her sorrow, stating, "It was heartbreaking, we mourn."
Danilo Baluyot, the executive director of Taste of Manila, underscored the importance of continuing family-friendly events despite recent tragedies, promoting resilience and diversity within the community. "We need the full support of people to show everyone that we will keep doing this for everyone," he asserted.
A significant challenge faced by festival organizers is the high cost of implementing protective measures. Steve Adelman, Vice President of the Event Safety Alliance USA, explained that the latest vehicle mitigation technology, resembling a metal 'L' with a wheel, is highly effective but expensive. He noted, "Safety and security tend to be a stepchild. This is a new safety and security expense, and that’s why it’s a difficult conversation." The expenses for mobile barriers can reach into the thousands.
Toronto City Councillor Shelley Carroll highlighted that many festival organizers bear these costs themselves, adding, "With all this advocacy, I don't want it to be forgotten that a lot of the expenses of these festivals is the organizations themselves who are paying these bills." Eglinton-Lawrence City Councillor Mike Colle, who helped initiate the summit, called for other levels of government to contribute financially to security needs, stating, "We want you to step up and pay for some of the security realities. Right now, they are not paying anything for the security needs that we need."
In response to the rising costs, an additional $750,000 has been allocated from city funds to assist festival organizers, increasing the total for the 2025 Special Events Stabilization Initiative to $2.1 million. According to Pat Tobin, General Manager of Economic Development and Culture, these funds will be disbursed on a competitive application and assessment basis, noting that the city cannot fund all applications. Earlier this year, 64 festivals received a total of $2.65 million under the Cultural Festivals Funding program.
Mary Fragedakis, Executive Director of GreekTown on the Danforth BIA, suggested that the city consider purchasing hostile vehicle mitigation tools for rental to event organizers to ease their financial burden, as this represents a significant expense. Additionally, the city has allocated $100,000 in seed funding to help establish a festivals association and plans to introduce new event planning resources developed by the Event Safety Alliance.
