TD Festival of South Asia, 2022

 The TD Festival of South Asia is a free street festival in Gerrard India Bazaar celebrating South Asian (OK mostly Indian) culture, food, entertainment and heritage.

They close off Gerrard street for the Indian section, and even the streetcars are rerouted. It is more or less an excuse for many of the businesses here to display their wares in the street. Gerrard street (the India Bazaar section) was known back in the day (late 90s, early 2000s) as the South Asian place in Toronto. That distinction, of course, has been lost over the decades as the South Asian diaspora spread far and wide, and now no one really needs to go Gerrard any more for their desi stuff.

The food choices were many. There were multiple stalls selling appetizers such as samosas or cane juice or mango lassi, as well as regulars such as chaat, bhelpuri and so on. The line ups weren't that long in the afternoon, and the prices reasonable.

The eastern section of the plaza contained more diverse choices such as street BBQ-ed tandoori chicken (check out the red colour!) as well as cholay batoore and others.

Of course it cannot be a festival without performances, and to their credit, the organizers had some set of dancers or performers every so often. And they were not just Indian - I saw Nepalese, Bengali amongst others. So at least in that aspect, it covered the whole South Asian flavour. 

I heard there was another festival in Mississauga, which is rapidly becoming another South Asian centre, along with Brampton. However with it comes to Gerrard, it is the OG, and many of us have fond memories of our early days in Canada coming down here to get a taste of South Asia in Toronto.

The weather was clear and sunny, and not too hot, which was perfect. You could walk around, see the whole set of bazaars and stalls, while getting tasty bites to eat.

As for parking, you have to park on the surrounding streets. On some of them you can only park on one side of the street (depending on the date) and there are also time restrictions (you can only park for an hour), so do pay attention. I wish there was a Green P location nearby that was easily accessible. However, it was a fun festival to attend.