Torontonians have decided the show must go on. Anybody else who turns up is welcome.
Summer's outpouring of special entertainment and sporting events in Canada's largest city is not ceding more ground than necessary to SARS fears, say many organizers.
It helps most festivals substantially, of course, that the roughly 4 million inhabitants of the Greater Toronto Area comprise a strong audience base despite current declines in tourism.
"We know that 83 per cent of our audience comes from the GTA and that ticket sales are better than last year at this time," said Patrick Taylor, executive producer of the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival (June 20-29), which normally draws 400,000 people.
Racing car enthusiasts at Molson Indy Toronto (July 11-13) were clocked in 2002 as being 56 per cent from the GTA and an additional 35 per cent from a slightly larger Ontario region stretching from Hamilton to Barrie. Scarcely 3 per cent of the spectators were from the United States, with an equally small number from other foreign countries.
"Last year, over the three days, we had 168,000 people and, to date, ticket sales are above those from last year," said Indy spokesperson Cynthea Galbraith.
Similarly, while only nine of the registered teams in the Toronto International Dragon Boat Race (June 21-22) are from outside the province -- a third of the usual number -- it hasn't much affected the planning or expectations for the 100,000-spectator event.
"We have a total of 210 teams participating this year, which is a record for us," said race manager Fred Heese, who ascribed the foreign drop-off to the SARS issue. "If tourism is hit, I imagine we might be down but basically we don't expect the crowd to be any less."
Such responses don't mean the city is sanguine about its situation.
The organizers of Pride Week (June 23-29), the gay and lesbian community celebration that attracts nearly one million participants, have faced tightened corporate support and are also concerned that SARS fears will cut into this month's turnout. The event is among the largest annual Toronto festivals and is the third-largest Pride festivity in North America.
Efforts to counter SARS concerns may to some extent create competition for support and attention for longstanding activities like Pride Week. A Concert for Toronto, for example, has been hastily engineered by the Ontario government as a feel-good exercise for the city and a public showcase for an international audience spooked by the scare.
Being held at both SkyDome and the Air Canada Centre, with satellite contact between the two, the June 21 concert features Barenaked Ladies, Avril Lavigne, the Tragically Hip, Sarah McLaughlin, Swollen Members and Remy Shand.
That all-Canadian lineup will spare Concert for Toronto some worries being experienced by other events. About 20 per cent of more than 1,500 musicians slated for the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival, for instance, are from outside Canada. Like some other major events in town, the festival remains on tenterhooks about what the World Health Organization may do.
"All our international performers are still coming," said Mr. Taylor. "Some of them have concerns but they're coming. But if there's a [WHO] travel advisory again, we'll be in big trouble."
Indeed, the summer-long suspension of Mirvish Productions' Mamma Mia! and the announcement that the Mirvish presentation of Disney's The Lion King would close in September seemed to signal wider doldrums this season. But while most special event planners aren't sure what's happening to their tourist base just now, they don't seem to doubt that they'll sell sufficient tickets or mount their usual standard of presentation.
The crux is that long-running stage productions and permanent institutional attractions have a dependency on the tourist presence which is far more acute than that of most annual festivals and sporting events.
Big one-time rock concerts such as those featuring Neil Young and Crazy Horse (June 23), Pearl Jam (June 28), Santana (June 29) and Peter Gabriel (July 4) are hardly likely to be bereft of patrons.
For those organizations more dependent on tourists, the encouraging news this month has been the continued commitment of the American Library Association to holding its annual conference in the city June 19-25.
The group drew some 20,000 delegates to Atlanta last year, noted spokesperson Larra Clark in Chicago.
"Of course, people are concerned about SARS in Toronto," she said.
The ALA, which last updated its Web site tally May 30, reported 9,860 attendees confirmed, with 1,400 cancellations.
On the whole, visitors to summer special events, whether from the GTA or beyond, aren't likely to notice much amiss in Toronto, whatever special challenges are being faced by organizers.
Annually mounted for 42 years, for example, The Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition (July 11-13) has lined up 560 artists this year "and we've had no artists who have withdrawn from the show," said acting executive director Sophie Hackett, who hopes for about 100,000 attendees at Nathan Phillips Square.
Meanwhile, Harbourfront Centre has its usual robust complement of summer festivals, including Roots Worldwide (June 14), Sol Soulstice (June 20-22), Anthems & Icons (June 27-29), Labatt Blues Festival (July 4-6) and World's Fare: The Americas Now (July 10-13, 18-20). Queen's Plate horse racing (June 22) and Toronto International Caravan (June 21-29) make their appointed appearances as well.
Not least, over a million people are again expected to turn up for the Celebrate Toronto Street Festival (July 4-6), running in conjunction with the Summerlicious restaurant festival. Five locations in town feature an array of revelry-oriented events while some 60 restaurants offer a prix fixe menu of their best fare.
Toronto has its problems, but no one's too glum to eat.
To learn more about any of these Toronto events, go to http://www.toronto.ca.
9