hillcrest village bia ends sponsorship of salsa on st. clair after july gunfight kills 2
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salsa on st. clair has lost a major sponsor just two weeks after a double fatal shooting at the event.
the two-day festival no longer has the sponsorship of the hillcrest village business improvement area (bia), whose board voted last thursday against sponsoring it. it advised festival organizers canadian salsa festival and tln media group in a letter on the same date.
“especially, post-covid, when it restarted, our members noticed there was much more of an unruly crowd, much more having to deal with garbage, fights, open alcohol,” hillcrest village bia chair dr. heather hannah told the sun on wednesday. “so over the past five years, there’s been a steady decline in members who want to participate for the whole weekend or maybe don’t want to participate at all, and we were getting less and less support in our post-event surveys that we would send out each year. and then unfortunately the tragic events of the saturday, of the 11th (of july), sadly brought that to a head and made any support that might have been there just vanish.”
well-attended bia board meeting sealed deal to end sponsorship
the bia had a board meeting a week after the july 11 shootings that was well attended by the public, said hannah, “that really expressed that times have changed, the neighbourhood has changed, the festival has changed in terms of the people who attend in the evening and so forth, and the amount of crowds to deal with and the garbage and all the other issues.”
hannah said the bia’s salsa on st. clair sponsorship included funding of $50,000 plus car and store barricades, which cost another $10,000.
tln media group wasn’t sounding surprised by this turn of events.
toronto police investigate near the site of a shooting that occurred at the salsa on st. clair festival in toronto on the evening of july 11, 2026.
laura proctor
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getty images
“the invasion of the festival by reckless criminals on july 11, 2026 resulted in horrific scenes of violence, chaos and lasting trauma,” it said in an emailed statement to the sun on wednesday.
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“it is understandable therefore that the bia businesspeople would would so respond in the wake of such a tragedy. our primary concern is the absolute safety and security of all participants. since this tragedy, the city of toronto mayor’s office has committed to working with the organizers and tln telelatino to address that concern and ensure the continuation of the festival.”
police previously said an exchange of gunfire by two groups in the middle of salsa on st. clair led to two men being killed while six others were injured.
so far, no arrests have been made.
hannah said the first saturday of the festival typically drew over 200,000 people while tln media group estimated just over 1-million attendees over the weekend.
next week, it’s expected some of the free attractions at the first ever salsa at niagara falls running sept. 11-12 on a strip overlooking the falls will be announced.
“we’ve been a sponsor since inception (in 2005) because it was kind of made for us, this festival, and we certainly appreciated the efforts that tln did at the time,” hannah said. “it’s always been great festival and it served us well i would say for over a decade and a half.”
hannah said ending the sponsorship was “sad but it’s just changed so much in the last few years. they could certainly move this and call it salsa toronto someplace else.”
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