Riverside District BIA recognized
Riverside District BIA won the second place Creative Event award at the first-ever Toronto Association of Business Improvement Area’s Recognition Awards for its third annual Take a Walk on the Riverside fall festival.
The October event is designed to showcase the community services, restaurants, shops and attractions the Riverside area has to offer, says the director of Riverside District BIA Sapna Alim.
The festival consisted of two guided tours and one self-guided tour. Participants on the self-guided tour were given an event schedule with a map divided into quadrants, which exhibited the flavour of Riverside, retail and home decor, wellness-related businesses and lifestyle.
As for the guided tours, the one led by James Farrow and Stephanie Chambers focused on the history of the Riverside neighbourhood. The other, led by Gerald White from the Riverdale Historic Society, was based on the architecture and history of the buildings in the area.
According to Alim, this year’s event brought out the biggest crowd so far at around 6,000 attendees.
“I mean we’re only 14 blocks, we’re a very small BIA,” says Alim. “So we had excellent attendance and we are excited about the amount of people that showed up.”
The participation of businesses also jumped up from 19 in 2010 to 50 in 2011. Businesses in the area also reported it to be the largest day of sales of the year, according to Alim.
The festival was the idea of the marketing committee put together by the Riverside District BIA, from three years ago. Since then it has continued to grow every year.
“It’s getting bigger and bigger and the programming is also getting larger,” says Alim. “Next year we are going to be having at least four to six types of tours, so we plan to just keep expanding it as the residential and lifestyle of this neighbourhood grows.”