Annual events

These events are how I think of Toronto's year, but there's always something happening. The city maintains a more comprehensive calendar of festivals and events.

Winterlicious and Summerlicious

Toronto has two dining festivals a year, Winterlicious and Summerlicious. Participating restaurants offer affordable prix-fixe menus. It's a great way to try some new restaurants.

Contact photography festival (May)

I also always look forward to the Contact Photography Festival each year. Galleries throughout the city mount exhibitions - large and small, commercial and noncommercial. Coffee shops and indie places participate too. Again, it's all free, and they normally publish a wonderful catalogue. As someone into photography, I find it hugely inspiring - seeing such a broad diversity of work, seeing some incredible images, and the exhibitions that I know I would do better.

Your best bet is to pick a section of the city, and do a gallery crawl from A to B. Our past crawls include:

• The Distillery District to the Metropolitan Image Centre.
• Along Queen West, from Parkdale to Richmond 401.
• Along Dundas.

Doors Open Toronto (Last weekend in May)

Hundreds of notable buildings open their doors for free tours.

Canada Day (July 1st)

Canada's official birthday. It's a public holiday, and there will be fireworks.

The Ex

The Canadian National Exhibition is an annual fair held at the Exhibition parade grounds. It started life as an agricultural show (and still has one), but is now more of a fair. Expect fairground rides and sideshows, stunt food, and events. It's noisy, busy, and expensive, but if you like fairs you'll like The Ex.

It's worth noting that most years see some disturbance; if you get a bad vibe, head in the opposite direction.

The Air Show

Labour Day weekend sees Toronto beset by the air show. Fighter jets are loud, so it is contentious. Nonetheless, a whole bunch of fighter jets, stunt planes, air display teams, helicopters, and other aircraft will be in the sky along the Lakeshore, roughly westward from Ontario Place. You can buy a ticket, but a lot of people fill Ontario Place and the Marilyn Bell Park to watch for free. You can livestream the commentary to your phone.

There's often big gaps between performances (say, 20-30 minutes) and they intersperse the exciting jets with less compelling vehicles. So bring a book or something else to pass the time if you're making a day of it.

Nuit Blanche (September/October)

If you're planning an autumn trip to Toronto, it's absolutely worth aligning your dates with Nuit Blanche. It's an overnight city-wide free arts festival; thousands of people will come out to see exhibitions, performances, and roam the city at night. It's one of my favourite things about living in Toronto, and a highlight of my year. I like being able to walk from my house to Nathan Phillips Square, and see so many different things. Installations, gallery shows, performances, sculptures. Seeing the city thronged with people at 2AM is thrilling.

Night of Dread parade (Halloween)

Canada is more into Halloween than the UK. Lots of houses put out decorations, lots of people get dressed up. There are haunted houses. And there's a parade: again, expect puppets and musicians and fun.

Winter solstice parade (December 21st)

This is one of my favourite events of the year. The parade starts in Kensington Market and makes its way to Alexandra Park, where a giant sculpture is burned. Bring a hot drink for comfort, and let the event awaken your inner Pagan. There will be puppets, a brass band, stilt walkers, and fire spinners.