being a torontonian at supercrawl

Having spent the better part of my life growing up in Toronto, Hamilton was once a faraway place – with smoke and steel and a little school called McMaster. A thriving arts scene wasn’t really something that came to mind. A lot has been said in ANDY about how “art is the new steel.” However, when I attended Supercrawl this past weekend, I realized that (despite my obvious bias), not enough has been written.

I found myself charmed by the lovely little galleries, vendors and street musicians. My group of friends and I lingered at every guitarist, photograph and vintage clothing store that cold air and passing time would allow. I slurped down a ruby-orange and nutmeg snow cone and tried on a handmade nebula print sweatshirt. I flipped through a copy of Worn – an alternative Canadian fashion magazine and inquired the price of a ‘60s clutch (which I returned to its place shortly after). I put on a giant pair of silver, cat-shaped glasses along with a bright yellow luau and posed for a picture with CBC Hamilton (yikes). And when we all huddled together for Said the Whale’s performance, the energy of the crowd was both friendly and exciting.

I attended Supercrawl with a local Hamiltonian, a student from Ajax, one from Guelph, one from Calgary and a couple of Torontonians. Our group was markedly diverse, like most student groups at the festival probably were, but the community graciously welcomed us and I felt a strange kind of pride that I had somehow become a part of it.

We hope that this issue of ANDY can offer a small taste of Supercrawl and some insight into some of the event’s musical acts. We hope that you’ll choose to attend James Street North’s monthly art crawl (the second Friday of every month). And I’m sure you’ll be as taken with the event as I was, and realize that there is still so much left to be said.