Winter in the Market

The annual Kensington Market Winter Solstice was recetnly held, witha parade and a fire festival.
Those on hand could either make their own latern, or buy a ready made one, hawked by two attendents with a bullhorn!



Once you had your lantern, you joined the parade to the Alexander Park south of Dundas St. In the parade were band members, costumed characters,



and even stilt walkers,



and even Olivia Chow joined the parade, riding her horse!



Once everyone gathered around the baseball field,



the band began to play, and the fire show started.
The first event was skipping with a rope on fire!




Then troop members brought out various ropes and chains, all topped with fire. They gave everyone a chance to watch them juggle or swing ball's of fire through the air.



Once that was done, and after a drum display from some natives, the troop began to breath fire onto the center piece, eventually setting it alight.



And for the final, one guy had balls of fire which he juggled! It was pretty cool (or hot!)

NIGHT OF DREAD

The annual Night of Dread was held at Dufferin Grove Park this evening.
The Clay and Paper Theater created a bunch of puppets that people strapped to their bodies for a parade down the streets.


(I'm pretty sure that's Prince Charles!)


(Evil Ronald McDonald?)

As it was the day before Halloween, there were lots of kids (of all ages) in costume!













After the parade, the crowd came back to the park for a small display of the fears, such as violence and death, which were beat back by the light of fire.













It was an interesting event until they marched to another area, and someone got on the mike to say that "the worst environmental catstrophe was the oil sands", which seemed a little out of place for a kids event!! So that was it for me!!