As Sunfest booms, officials eye expanding beyond Victoria Park into core

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As they launch the 30th edition of Sunfest on Thursday, organizers of London’s big summer festival celebrating international music and diversity are thinking ahead to expansion and more elbow room.

The festival, which began in 1995, has grown into a huge event on London’s summer calendar that’s expected to draw more than 200,000 people to Victoria Park during this week’s four-day run, with dozens of performers, food concessions and craft vendors filling the park.

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Amid the growth, Sunfest founder Alfredo Caxaj said he and others “continue dreaming that eventually we will expand this festival into downtown, into the main core of the city.”

Caxaj, whose work nurturing the festival from modest beginnings was recognized by an Order of Canada appointment last year, said he remembers the overhaul Victoria Park went through about 15 years ago – wider, looping sidewalks through the park were added, among other things – to help support its ability to stage more events like Sunfest.

Now, the festival has all but outgrown that space.

The park renovations were done “with precisely the idea of supporting the events that existed at the time,” he said. “And the irony is that all the infrastructure is not enough anymore for what we do now. So that’s about how much we have grown, and it’s been incredible.”

Already, the festival is spilling beyond the park into the downtown. For the first time, one of its stages this year will operate Thursday only from the Good Foundation Theatre on Market Lane, with three performances from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Part of Fanshawe College’s downtown school of digital and performing arts, the theatre allows open-air performances onto the adjoining Market Lane. The London Music Office invited the festival to run the stage as part of its City of Music concert series.

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“That’s kind of testing the waters and seeing, you know, to see if we can be in two different locations at once,” said Alfredo’s daughter, Mercedes Caxaj, who’s also involved with the festival. “It just felt right to do it.”

The addition of the new stage creates more space for festival-goers and another way for organizers to introduce audiences to the music Sunfest brings to London, she said.

A new addition to the festival’s various stages in the park is the UNESCO City of Music stage. London was the first Canadian city designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as a music city, and the stage will showcase performers from a network of UNESCO creative cities.

At this week’s festival, visitors will be able to catch more than 50 performers from across Canada and international artists, such as the supergroup the Gilsons. It was formed by grandchildren of Gilberto Gil, considered the father of Brazilian music.

Between craft and food vendors, including ones offering tastes of many international cuisines, festival-goers will have more than 225 shopping and food options, Mercedes Caxaj said.

“We all have dreams,” her father said. “And you know, one of the dreams is to make this festival as large as possible.”

Sunfest opens Thursday at noon and runs until 11 p.m., and again Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

For the full schedule, go to sunfest.on.ca

bbaleeiro@postmedia.com

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