Torontonians took to social media to vent about the huge crowds and other things they didn’t particularly love about one of the city’s biggest outdoor parties this past weekend. Do West Fest transformed Dundas St W between Ossington and Lansdowne into a 16-block summer celebration from Friday to Sunday, with live music, food, patios, vendors, and art and community programming. And yes, lots of people attended, but for many, the once “chill little festival,” mostly for locals, was a bit over the top, especially on Saturday night.
In one Reddit thread, “Can we talk about the crowd at Do West Fest on Saturday,” an attendee wrote, “What was up with the crowd yesterday? The crowd shoving and crushing was insane, it felt like I couldn’t breathe moving through the crowd. I went on Friday night and it wasn’t even this bad.”
And the complaints just poured in (and this was just one of several threads), with people complaining about everything from the layout of the event to reports of stolen phones, to, cue the fist-shaking, those damn “high school kids everywhere.”
“The crowd crush was scary,” one user wrote. “It could have easily gone badly. I hope there is better crowd control next year since this event is only getting more popular.”
@etaybeaton So crowded omg 😭😭 #thelotionguy #westfest #toronto #torontotiktok #scarborough ♬ I Can Do Anything / Finale – Christopher Lennertz
Another user overheard people comparing the scene to Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival, where a fatal crowd crush occurred in 2021.
“People were legitimately freaked out,” the Redditor wrote. “It seemed like a majority were looking for an exit instead of vibing/having fun.”
Another commenter brought up the deadly 2022 crowd crush in South Korea, writing, “It’s crazy how fast situations like this can get out of hand.”
And then there was criticism about the festival layout. One attendee pointed to the stage outside The Garrison, saying it was “weirdly placed” because it sat on Dundas itself, causing the crowd in front of the stage to take up a huge part of the street and create bottlenecks.
“It would’ve made more sense IMO to put that stage tucked a bit onto Lakeview or something so the crowds could still flow,” the commenter wrote, while another added that the event could benefit from “barriers to direct pedestrian flow and better spacing of tents.”
High schoolers, who were apparently “up to nothing good,” also took some heat, with one user stating that’s partially why they skip festivals in the city. “Too many stories about stolen phones, pickpocketing, scams, and chaotic crowds—and add teenagers into the mix? Hard pass.”
Others said the takeaway should be that Toronto needs more pedestrianized streets and more frequent street festivals, but that conversation is unfolding at a time when Toronto street festival organizers are facing rising costs. Do West Fest managing director Anah Shabbar recently toldCityNews that the festival is one of the city’s biggest but operates with one of the smaller budgets, adding that the festival had to increase police presence this year, nearly doubling its police-spending line.
Despite the rising costs and wave of criticism, not everyone had a bad time. Several users said they still enjoyed the festival, especially outside the busy Saturday-night crush.
“I was there tonight and it was much better,” one Redditor wrote on Sunday. “Had a blast.”
