A totally bizarre festival is coming to Toronto this week, and it’s devoted to the history of the city — but we promise it’ll be anything but boring. Titled the Festival of Bizarre Toronto History, prepare to learn all about some of our fair city’s weirdest, wackiest history. Back for its third year, it’s clear there’s an appetite for the strange and curious!
The inaugural festival included online lectures, panels, interviews and walking tours hosted by some of the city’s greatest storytellers and historians, and this year’s festival will follow a similar structure.
Running from June 1–7, it kicks off with a free opening night party, fittingly at the City of Toronto Archives. And it’s not just a party: staff will share their picks for the weirdest photographs in the city’s history. You’ll also get to enjoy a tour of the stacks!
From Tuesday to Friday, there will be a Zoom lecture every night: topics include the secrets of Toronto’s hidden tunnels, the wildest kidnappings in Toronto history, the great Toronto stork derby (which is just as weird as it sounds) and the strangest buildings in Toronto history.
On Saturday, the fun really kicks off: at 1 p.m., join a walking tour run by Toronto history creator Kiki Mairi that explores the secrets and scandals of mid-century modern towers. At 5 p.m., there will be a walking guide to “how to read the emotions of a city,” led by Alex Sein (also known as BeardedProf416), who is a professor, professional tour guide and urban explorer. And when the night falls, take a weird walk down Yonge Street to learn everything that makes that strip of the city weird and wonderful.
On Sunday, the festival is bringing back a fan favourite: a cemetery tour! Run by Chantal Morris, creator of the Toronto Cemetery Tours, this year will be a brand new, never-seen-before tour. And end off this strange and bizarre week with a walking tour led by festival organizer Adam Bunch.
Bunch previously told Streets of Toronto that his goal was to get people interested in Toronto’s history, and it’s clear he’s done just that.
“It’s easier to get interested in a story that is unexpected and surprising,” Bunch said. “What better way to do that than by looking at some of the strangest stories that our history has to offer, so that you’re learning something deeply weird and unexpected? And also, hopefully, what it can teach us about the city and its history.”
Bunch, who wrote The Toronto Book of the Dead and The Toronto Book of Love, said he wants to help Torontonians learn to care for our city again. “Once you know those stories and that history, it becomes easier to care about this place and about making it a better place for people to live in the future,” he said. “And the more you know about how it ended up this way, that gives you more power to know how to change it, what should be preserved, what should be reformed, and hopefully build a stronger, happier, more inclusive Toronto, armed with the stories that are entertaining and fascinating and illuminating, all at the same time.”
You can find a full rundown of the schedule here and grab tickets to individual events or a pass for the entire festival.
