Toronto:
The York-Eglinton International Street Festival is becoming one of Toronto’s fastest rising multi-cultural, all ages, multi-disciplinary community arts festival in only its fifth year!

Created to celebrate and showcase the rich diversity and multi-generational flavour of our local community to the world, this family-friendly event features the music, art, culture and food of a large variety of cultures including Caribbean, Italian, Portuguese and Latin American communities among others.

In recent years the event has featured Juno Award-winning musician Steele, international award-winning singer George Nooks, and Anslem Douglas, the singer-songwriter behind the anthem “Who Let The Dogs Out”.

This year’s edition will stimulate the senses in much the same way, this time around featuring a more diverse family-friendly multicultural line-up of entertainment including: Mountain Edge Roots & Culture Band, are one of Canada’s finest Roots Reggae ensembles.

Led by L.A. Allen, they are winners of the Canadian Reggae Music Awards four consecutive years (2007-10) and have had the privilege of working with such world class acts such as Marcia Griffiths, John Holt, Freddy McGregor, The Mighty Diamonds, Queen Ifrica, Rita Marley, Dobby Dobson and many more.

Michie Mee, “Canada’s First Lady of Rap” was the first Canadian recording artist to secure an American recording contract with First Priority Records and was a founding member of the alternative rock band Raggadeath.

This Juno Award-nominated vocal talent has worked alongside, and opened up for, a who’s who of world renowned pop, hip hop and reggae talents including KRS-One, Esthero, Salt n Pepa, Sinead O’ Connor and Judy Mowatt.

Strictly Salsa, founded and directed by the Gomez Family, this organisation provides high quality dance showcases and instruction in the “live” Latin entertainment scene.

Dirty Maria, is Toronto’s first (and one of the top) Latin alternative rock bands in the city. The band, like Toronto, represent a hybrid mix of cultures including Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and Panama.

They are past winners of the Toronto LAMC Conference (2005) and Toronto Independent Music Award nominees (2008).

Energetic

liente Danz, are a dance troupe led by respected choreographer Martin Samuels that showcase energetic dance routines with stunning costumes, raising Latin, African and World cultural awareness and social consciousness.

Ossie D (Oswald Douglas) is an iconic Jamaican singer, dancer, choreographer, songwriter known for his nimble and flexible foot movements. A former member of the now defunct Fabulous Flames, the first dance group in Jamaica, he co-choreographed work on the History of Jamaican Popular Dance for the island’s independence celebrations.

York-Eglinton International Street Festival also helps foster up-and-coming talent in Canada’s arts, music and entertainment industry, and this year is no different.

Watch for emerging talents like Award-winning dancehall-style singjay King Ujah, Trinidadian-Canadian Ragga Soca artist Logun, singer-songwriter Jahsmin Daley (one of the original ‘Daley Sisters’ gospel singing group), bi-lingual vocalist diva Dahlia, Steel (Pan) playing Empress Chantal McKnight, the dance-friendly funk of the 6-piece Turbo Street Funk band, popular community gospel singer and evangelist Gerry Thompson, and the 4th R, an ensemble of young musicians from Toronto who perform a variety of genres including rock, old school, R&B, and top 40 hits, among other acts!