Play The Parks comes back to Toronto’s outdoor spaces starting today, August 15, continuing until September 30. The annual series has been produced by the Toronto Downtown Yonge BIA community for about a decade.
This year, Play The Parks, a free music and concert series that showcases local artists, has expanded to 13 cities across Canada. Presented by TD Music Connects and Canada’s Music Incubator (CMI), the free concert series will feature more than 100 diverse from Black, Indigenous, Chinese, South Asian and 2SLGBTQ+ communities. Canada’s Music Incubator (CMI) is a Toronto-based national not-for-profit organization providing mentorship and other professional development services to emerging music entrepreneurs.
“Curating live sponsored performance opportunities for emerging artists is an extension of CMI’s professional development mandate to help them develop sustainable businesses,” says Jesse Mitchell, Director of CMI Live in a release. “The TD Music Connected Series’ national expansion of Play The Parks not only helps to accomplish this, but also works to bring many communities together while showcasing cultural and musical diversity.”
The new cities in the Play The Parks program this year include: Victoria, BC; Vancouver, BC; Surrey, BC; New Westminster, BC; Edmonton, AB; Calgary, AB; Winnipeg, MB; London, ON; Brantford, ON; Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON; Barrie, ON; Sydney, NS; and St. John’s, NL.
During the pandemic, Play The Parks ran as a virtual event in Calgary as a collaboration between Calgary Parks, the National Music Centre, the CMI, and TD Music Connected Series. Six artists pre-recorded performances from parks across Calgary.
The concerts will take place across dozens of parks throughout the municipalities. The line-up includes:
- Cynthia Hamar, Métis singer-songwriter with four folk studio albums;
- Chad Price, 2022 CBC Music Searchlight Grand Prize Winner;
- Jing Xia, professional guzheng artist, teacher and scholar;
- Ellen Farrugia and the Surrey City Orchestra String Trio.
For the complete line-up of cities, parks and artists for the 2022 Play The Parks live program, visit the website here. Toronto concerts are listed here.
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