Taste of the Danforth set to return this summer following Premier Ford’s support: organizer

Danforth-Greektown BIA Chair Tony Pethakas shares how support from the City of Toronto and Premier Doug Ford has put Taste of the Danforth back on track.

The Taste of the Danforth is set to return this summer, organizers say, following Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s offer to revive the festival.

“The Taste of Danforth is back on track for 2026. We can confirm that it will be happening this year,” Tony Pethakas, the chair of the Greektown on the Danforth business improvement area (BIA), told CP24 on Wednesday night.

“We’re super excited about everybody coming to visit us at this year’s Taste.”

Pethakas shared with CP24 that the festival is scheduled to take place from Aug. 7 to 9.

The popular summertime event, which typically takes place during the second weekend of August in the city’s Greektown neighbourhood, has been cancelled for the last two years.

In 2024, organizers cited funding constraints as the reason why they put the annual street festival on hold. Last summer, however, no official reason was given and the event was quietly pulled for a consecutive year.

Pethakas said the BIA had already begun talking with the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Gaming for possible funding this year, so he was pleased to hear the premier’s comments.

“This announcement today was truly something to celebrate,” Pethakas said.

During an unrelated news conference on Wednesday morning, the premier said he misses Taste of the Danforth, which was first held in 1993 and draws upwards of a million people each year to the area, and is prepared to have his government provide some funding to bring it back.

• READ MORE: Taste of the Danforth cancelled for second year in a row

“My dad grew up on the Danforth. He’s a Danforth guy his whole life. He said he was an east ender,” the premier said during “off-script” remarks directed at Toronto-Danforth MP Julie Dabrusin, who was also in attendance at the Ontario Line announcement.

“I miss the Taste of the Danforth so I will commit. I’ll talk to our friend, the boss there (Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow), and I’ll see if we can put money in there to revitalize the Taste of the Danforth.”

Ford went on to say, however, that Toronto must also step up to help.

“And Mayor, you aren’t getting off scot-free; you put a little bit in but we’ll put a little more in,” he said.

“So we’ll commit to that as long as we get the partnership with our other colleagues here.”

Chow did not implicitly respond to Ford’s offer. During his remarks, Chow interjected, saying. “It’s happening this summer,” adding that Toronto would support Taste of the Danforth financially as well.

She has said the city is working to bring back the event and funding has been set aside in this year’s budget for it.

City ‘always been ready’ to help: councillor

Late Wednesday afternoon, Toronto-Danforth Coun. Paula Fletcher said the city has “always been ready to help bring back the Taste whenever Greektown was ready.”

“The province now willing to help too moves the needle to start the countdown to August. Opa!!,” Fletcher wrote in a message to CP24.

Last August, the Ward 14 rep said the person who organizes Taste of the Danforth wasn’t available, resulting in the cancellation of the 2025 edition. Fletcher adds that the Greektown on the Danforth BIA felt it couldn’t successfully take on an event of this magnitude on its own.

“This is unfortunately the only festival that hasn’t made it out of COVID but a lot of people miss it so much,” she said at that time.

Fletcher went on to say the BIA would need to keep looking at how it can bring Taste of the Danforth back to the community.

“The city is willing to step up and help the BIA in whatever way possible to have a successful Taste (of the Danforth) because it is a festival loved by so many, in the province of Ontario, not just Toronto,” she said.

“Really it is up to the BIA, the Greektown BIA, to say, ‘We’ve got a plan. We’ve got a festival that we’re planning to run in ’26. We’re starting early. Let’s talk,’ and that hasn’t happened yet. My fingers are crossed.”

Fletcher said Taste of the Danforth is the only festival in the city that hasn’t returned since the pandemic and everyone is “rooting for (it) to come back.”

“I’m behind that BIA all the way if they decide to go in 2026,” she said.

What to expect at this year’s festival

When asked what visitors could expect at this year’s festival, Pethakas said, “a big Greek party.

“A Taste like one we remember—back to its roots, celebrating the small businesses of Greektown, celebrating our culture, celebrating the multiculturalism that is Toronto and now Greektown as well,“ he said.

“Come visit us. Come drink with us. Come eat with us. Come and enjoy the festival with us,” Pethakas added.