Culture and Entertainment
The Distillery District is a pedestrian village containing
boutiques, art galleries, restaurants, artist studios
and small breweries, including the well-known Mill Street
Brewery. A new theatre in the district, the Young Centre
for the Performing Arts, is the home of the Soulpepper
Theatre Company and the drama productions of nearby George
Brown College.
The production of domestic and foreign film and television
is a major local industry. Many movie releases are screened
in Toronto prior to wider release in North America. The
Toronto International Film Festival is one of the most
important annual events for the international film industry.
Europe's largest film studio, Pinewood Studios Group of
London, is scheduled to open a major new film studio complex
in west-end Toronto, with five sound stages, with the
first two to open by fall 2008.
Toronto's Caribana festival takes place from mid-July
to early August of every summer, and is one of North America's
largest street festivals. For the most part, Caribana
is based on the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, and the
first Caribana took place in 1967 when the city's Caribbean
community celebrated Canada's Centennial year. 40 years
later, it has grown to attract one million people to Toronto's
Lake Shore Boulevard annually. Tourism for the festival
is in the hundred thousands, and each year, the event
brings in about $300 million.