Supercrawl: On the Bay

Photos C/O Stephanie Montani

Supercrawl’s large-scale events return for the first time since the pandemic with On the Bay

The latest live concert event since Supercrawl’s Bridgeworks Live Stream, On The Bay took place on Friday, Oct. 8 and Saturday, Oct. 9. The event was hosted at Bayfront Park Pavilion in collaboration with the Something Else! Festival. It marked the first large-scale outdoor event for Supercrawl since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Despite the rainy weather during the event, over 5,000 attendees on Friday and 9,000 on Saturday came out to support and enjoy the lineup of wonderful talents, artists, craft vendors and food trucks. 

“[On the Bay] was very successful for what we’re able to do right now. It was a very rainy, muddy weekend. But we got good attendance out and we had good support,” said Lisa La Rocca, the vendor coordinator of Supercrawl.

“It was an excellent partnership and really just helped us fill our local musical offerings,” said La Rocca. 

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Similar to Supercrawl’s other in-person events since Sept. 1, a COVID-19 vaccine check station was set up at the concert gate. Although previous events were much smaller, with events like the rooftop concert series inviting up to 100 people, everyone cooperated with the COVID-19 protocols and the vaccine checks ran smoothly. 

“Everybody cooperated and seemed just very happy and excited to actually be out at a show,” said La Rocca. 

The concert was an exciting moment for many audience members and for many performers and it was their first time being back on a large stage. 

“It was an absolutely incredible experience. It was so cool to be back on a huge stage again with lights and an audience,” said Sapphyre Poison, a drag and burlesque performer and organizer of drag performances for Supercrawl.

Poison has been producing drag shows for Supercrawl for four years. She began attending Supercrawl as an undergraduate student and was always drawn to the friendly and creative spirit of the festival. Even today, Supercrawl remains one of her favourite events of the year and she appreciates the respect drag queens receive at the festival. 

“It’s really cool because [the Supercrawl team] takes us seriously and a lot of corporate events don’t always take the drag queens they book seriously. We’re always considered like entertainment and clout, but we’re treated the same way a band is treated at Supercrawl which is super awesome,” said Poison.

Since the inception of drag into the festival, it has built a large fanbase and become an integral part of the program.

“The response is always amazing. People love the shows. Back when we did it on the fashion stage, it was one of the most attended events which was so incredible and it’s been really well accepted. We have fans who have been coming up to every single one. We have fans who’ve seen us at Supercrawl and followed us to different shows in different cities,” said Poison.

Even if you missed out on the On the Bay event, there will be plenty of opportunities to engage with local art through Supercrawl. Coming up, new murals will soon replace last year’s “To What Do We Owe This Honour?” by Shellie Zhang on James Street North, although the artist and release date have not been specified as of yet. Folks can also look out for more drag and fashion showcases along with year-around shows of various sizes, art offerings, theatre and talks.