Our Berczy Park hounds are ready for the Santa Claus Parade! Thanks to dedicated volunteer knitters, the Berczy Park fountain dog sculptures are dressed warm for the Toronto Santa Claus Parade on Sunday, November 20th.
Each year, members of the Friends of Berczy Park Drop-in Knitting Group meet throughout the summer months and prepare festive scarves to warm the fountain dogs during the winter. This is the fifth year of this festive tradition, by which the knitters also donate the previous years’ scarves to local charities or shelters in need of winter wear.
Thank you knitters, and special thanks to the Old Town Toronto BIA, whose crews install the scarves on the fountain, and Toronto Parks Dept, for supporting this initiative.
Stop by and admire our well-dressed dogs at the Santa Claus Parade or during the annual Cavalcade of Lights in Berczy Park on Dec 3 from 5:30-6:30pm, sponsored by Old Town Toronto BIA.
Visitors to Berczy Park, and local residents, should be aware of two major back-to back, events taking place in Old Town Toronto, impacting access to Berczy Park and surrounding streets.
Tuesday Sept 20- Wednesday Sept 22: the annual ELEVATE tech conference occurs at Meridian Hall, other venues, and a festival Block Party on adjacent streets. See detailed hours below.
Friday Sept 23 – Sunday Sept 25.Just for Laughs Festival 2022, occurs at Meridian Hall, St Lawrence Centre for the Arts, other local venues, including a Free Street Festival on adjacent streets on Front St E. and Scott Streets. See detailed hours below.
Street closures/vehicle limitations: This will mean that Front St E is closed to vehicle traffic from Yonge St to Church St, and Scott Street will be closed to vehicles from Wellington Street to The Esplanade, at various times during these festivals. Yonge St, The Esplanade and Church Street will remain open to vehicles. ****Residents should check with their own building/parking representatives to determine how their in/out access may be impacted this week.
As you can see on the map below, these events will involve street closures around Old Town, some security fencing and limited access areas, and various parts of the park and streets closed for pedestrian only access, food vendors and licensed beverage zones.
The City and Friends of Berczy Park have worked with event organizers to minimize impact on park-users and ensure the public can also enjoy these events in public areas. The City of Toronto officials and the Old Town Business Improvement Association have also worked to ensure the events don’t overly impact residents, visitors, and motorists, on local streets and sidewalks.
For Berczy Park, although there will be security fencing sand security teams managing access to the park during these days, there will continue to be various public access points into the park for use by the public. Event structures, kiosks and stages will not interfere with public access to Berczy’s lawn areas, and pet-owners will continue to be able to access the gravel mural garden by the Flatiron Building for pet-relief.
Festival organizers are required to ensure that their stages, mini-shows and festival music complies with noise and sound limits set by the City. They will avoid the noise of idling trucks, use of heavy machinery during festival hours and use ‘whisper’ generators to reduce any operating noise.
ELEVATE and Just for Laughs also encourage the public to enjoy the atmosphere, music, shows and kiosks taking place in public areas during the week.
If you have concerns during these event, you should speak with an event staff member onsite, call 3-11, or, for issues impacting Berczy Park, email us at berczypark@gmail.com, or send a message to us via our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/BerczyPark
Resuming on Monday July 4th, join the Toronto Public Library, St Lawrence Branch, in Berczy Park each Thursday this summer from 1pm-2pm for free, children’s storytime. Look for our enthusiastic librarian on the lawn near the giant ‘hands’ sculpture in the western end of the park near Scott Street.
Attention knitters! Our Berczy Park drop-in knitting group resumes on Tuesday, June 7, at 2pm at the table & chair sets on the Berczy Park terrace. Drop in each Tuesday at 2 to socialize and refine your skills with other talented knitters, including the ladies who make the colourful wool holiday scarves for our Berczy fountain dogs.
Update: Rescheduled due to weather to Sunday April 24, 10am-noon. Join our spring volunteer clean-up activity on Saturday April 23, 10am-noon. Come to our meet-up spot in the Berczy mural garden (gravel area behind the Flatiron Bldg) – Look for Marc, Laura or Mary – and help us collect litter, sweep, scrub and meet a few neighbours . We’ll provide rubber gloves and waste bags but feel free to bring your favorite garden gloves, grocery bag for easy litter collection or broom/dustpan. We ask everyone to keep safe , and report any hazards to our site coordinator.
And, want to help beautiful Berczy, spring through fall 2022? We have a team of volunteers who sign up for a very flexible, one-week shift cleaning our popular terrace tables & chairs sometime between May and October. We provide the bag of cleaning supplies, including gloves and cloths, and our volunteer(s) give the tables a quick polish, so everyone can enjoy our wonderful shady seating area. If you’d like to help us out – perhaps while you enjoy the park, walk your dog, or pass by – please email us at berczypark@gmail.com and say “I want to join Berczy tables team”.
Our volunteer table & chair cleaners sign up every year to give the popular Berczy tables and chairs a quick clean and polish for all park visitors to enjoy.
Thanks to seven awesome Friends of Berczy Park volunteers who gave our park a quick, pre-spring cleaning on Saturday March 5. Their efforts to sweep, clean tables, remove dog poop and remove a dead pigeon carcass, enabled hundreds to enjoy the park the next day, when temperatures rose into the double digits. Keep in mind that some of our volunteers spot-clean the park year-round, when they pass through or walk their pets.
If you’d like to join our future volunteer clean-ups, please email us at Berczypark@gmail.com or follow our Friends of Berczy pages on Facebook or twitter.
Join us for the Old Town Toronto Cavalcade of Lights in Berczy Park, on Saturday December 4 for music, lights and fun.
While you’re there, or anytime soon, take a chance at a great holiday prize! Meet Barksy, Berczy Park’s holiday hound (see below) and you could win a $100 gift card to any local business. Just snap a photo with the Barksy festive sculpture, share on Instagram using #oldtowntoronto , and tag @OldTownToronto. That could put some nicely wrapped bones under the tree for your favorite hound while you enjoy the festive atmosphere in your favorite local park.
Our Berczy Park fountain dogs are once again dressed up for the holidays! Thanks to members of our Friends of Berczy Park knitting group, and installation help by the Old Town Toronto BIA crew, our dogs are again modelling home-made wool scarves, to keep warm and boost holiday spirits. It’s the fourth year of this tradition, by which our volunteers knit scarves and later donate them to a local shelter.
And watch for the Old Town Toronto Cavalcade of Lights, coming to Berczy Park on December 4th.
Berczy Park 