A LOOK BACK: 2024 EVENTS RECAP

The cherry blossoms bloomed early this April but our BIA was ready to “roll out the PINK carpet”! We once again decorated our BIA lamp posts with cheerful, artificial flowers, adding even more garland this year so the lamp posts had more volume. The response from patrons was terrific! People loved the vibe of the garland-adorned lamp posts. The colourful flowers also helped kickstart the joy of spring.

In addition to the lamp post garland, we also brought back cherry blossom-shaped planter signs to invite patrons to our BIA and increase vibrancy in the BIA during a typically ‘grey’ period before our summer planter arrangements arrive.

Our Bloor by the Park neighbourhood, located directly next to High Park, is uniquely positioned to capitalize on cherry blossom season when hundreds of thousands of people visit the gorgeous, famous sakura each year. In April, we delivered a notice to Bloor by the Park businesses asking them to share their cherry blossom promotions with BIA management. Thank you to Subway, Whelan’s Gate, Outpost Coffee Roasters, The A.R.T Clinic, Bodywise Toronto and Andrea’s Cookie’s for incorporating cherry blossom season into your promotions!

We also promoted many BIA food and drink businesses in our ‘hanami under the cherry blossoms’ campaign.

We hope to expand the cherry blossom celebration more in 2025. You can already start thinking about the type of promo or activity you might like to offer! More info will be available in the coming months.

Did you know that Mother’s Day is one of the busiest days of the year for retail? Mother’s Day weekend typically occurs during the cherry blossom season and so our BIA benefited from combining the celebrations.

This year we expanded our Mother’s Day event by hosting an outdoor public event on May 11th from 12-3pm at the corner of Bloor St W and Indian Rd (on the lawn of Redeemer Lutheran Church). We had live music, a prize wheel with several gift cards/certificates from local businesses, and giveaways that included fresh flowers, BIA tote bags, pens and limited edition sakura t-shirts. People had a fantastic time spinning the prize wheel and loved all the giveaways!

The Hon. Arif Virani hosted his annual Canada Day event on July 1st in High Park and our BIA was invited to host a booth to promote Bloor by the Park. We brought a lot of fun to the celebration with our prize wheel, giving out BIA tote bags, pens and limited-edition sakura t-shirts. There was always a long line for the prize wheel, which helped to draw attention to our booth (and BIA)! In addition to the prize wheel, we also had a temporary tattoo station and handed out freezies to children. The weather was fantastic and it was a great day to promote our BIA in High Park during the heavy pedestrian traffic.

BIA Member Spring Clean

On April 20th, BIA members unloaded excess garbage into a 1-800-Rid-of-It truck hosted by the BlA. The annual event is a convenient way for members to dispose of excess garbage easily and locally (as opposed to lugging garbage far away or paying an extra fee). A whole truck was nearly filled! Good job!