After hosting the Parkdale Youth Festival, Dalton Higgins, a well-known writer couldn't help but have the lively and distinct neighbourhood located just north of Toronto's Exhibition grounds on his mind.

"I think of certainly bootleg Bollywood DVDs. I think of some great Latin American cuisine. I think of certainly Wrong Bar," he responded jokingly to CBC's Garvia Bailey, host of Big City, Small World when asked about Parkdale.

On September 19 Parkdale held its 5th annual Youth Festival in an attempt to reach out to the youth and combat some existing stereotypes of what the community has to offer.
Visitors to the festival were provided with advice and pamphlets to help them find jobs, volunteering opportunities and personal assistance from community organizations such as Youth Employment Services (YES), the Vietnamese Association's Youth Settlement Services, the Hearing Every Youth Through Youth (HEYY) phone line and others.

Also on site were community businesses such as Icy Jewelry and Yoga Queen that aimed to promote their items and services as well as get the youth engaged in hobbies related to their businesses.

The Youth Festival allowed vendors the opportunity to connect to the community personally. "It's a great chance for me to come out and see what Parkdale has to offer," says Aniska Ali, a vendor at the festival. "I live in this area and it's nice to see what's up."

The event was also a chance for Parkdale to showcase its finest talents from an array of musical genres.



Performing were young rapper Scotty Dynamo, artists from the Toronto art studio Sketch and freestyles from Supreme Being Unit, as well as dancers from YMI dancing, the African-inspired dances from Akwaba Musical Exchange and the POSE Dance Troupe among others.

CBC Radio One's Big City, Small World even joined the fun taking over the 5 p.m. hour of the festival broadcasting live from the event at Queen Street West and Cowan Avenue.

The Parkdale Youth Festival was tied into larger events around the city, such as Manifesto and the neighbouring Queen West Art Crawl.

Words & Photos By: Dexter Brown