May 2-4 at Harbour Front – The ‘not so’ Sweet Variety of Circus

Just what I expected for a city of Toronto organized event: Very mediocre

I don’t know what it is about Toronto festivals and events but they seem to always be missing something.  I suggest they get some help from our French city neighbours who are a whole lot better at organizing these special events and making them truly spectacular.  Don’t get me wrong, a walk along the lake from the CNE to harbour front is always nice on a warm sunny day and there are plenty of good pictures to take and snacks to eat on the way.  But as for entertainment, I was not very impressed.  Where’s the creativity and variety?  There was one tent for face painting with a ridiculous line up, a tent with about 20 hoola hoops, a huge tent with simple  crafts like most kids probably do enough of at daycare and a “clown”show which I found to be a little lame.  We missed the acrobatic show so maybe that would make up for the lack of effort elsewhere.  There were a couple of mimes too which were o.k. (but I’ve seen better).  There are so many activities I could think of that could have made this event so much more interesting for the kids.  Potatoe sack races, bean bag throws, dump the clown, guessing games, just to name a few.  Don’t kids just want to get involved and play?  I think there were more junk food stands than actual activities for the kids!  And we wonder why we have a child obesity problem!  Anyway,  if you like that kind of stuff and want to be impressed, you may want to take a trip Eastward and head over to Old Montreal or le Vieux Québec where this kind of stuff happens all summer and not just for one weekend.

Lunch at Pier 4 though was very nice.  Food was good and patio was perfect.  Prices were also reasonable considering where we were.