The 25th Anniversary of Toronto’s ACC Summerfest 2022 Was A Great Success – Record-Breaking Attendance

By: Talin Orfali Ghazarian

ACC Summerfest 2022

On the weekend of July 8, 9, 10, 2022, The Armenian community centre of Toronto held its annual ACC Summerfest at the Armenian Youth Centre. The last 2-3 years due to the pandemic the summerfest was unfortunately on hiatus, but 2022, the biggest party of the year came back with record-breaking attendance from near and far.

Almost 8,000 people attended in the three days span. It was a successful weekend with awesome entertainment, food, and more. It was like a big family reunion where people come together after a long time of not seeing each other. Also people made new friends too.

People traveled from Los Angeles, Montreal, Detroit, Kitchener, Cambridge, Milton, St. Catharines, Armenia, Lebanon, and other parts of Canada, USA and the world.

The ACC Summerfest was visited by various dignitaries, as well as his Worship the Mayor of Toronto John Tory. We had a jam packed line-up of entertainment provided by our Master of Ceremonies all weekend long by a famous Armenian comedian all the way from Los Angeles. Her name is Mary Basmadjian that goes by the screen name of “Vartoush”. She also gave us a comedy show which we couldn’t stop laughing.

Then we had Martin Mkrtchyan, Marco Mr. Tam Tam, Serop Hagopian, Armenchik, Ararad Aharonian, Ronios, Suro, Joelle, DJ Davo, along with various vendors, a petting zoo, pony rides, magic show, entertainment zone for the kids and a lot more. Then to end off the weekend, the summerfest came to a close with Armenian Patriotic songs where we held up Armenia, Artsakh, Canadian flags to remember our Armenian heroes of Artsakh and Armenia where Hratch Jabrayan came up on stage to say a heartfelt yet touching speech.

We even received news media coverage by CP24.

We enjoyed delicious Armenian/Middle Eastern food made by Lara’s Restaurant and Mezze’s and other variety of foods by Arz Fine foods.

There was also authentic Armenian souvenirs, books, CD’s, Armenia Flag memorabilia to purchase.

It takes all year to plan a huge event like this. Hard work, determination, dedication, and hours and hours day in and day out of meetings, preparations, and carefully planning out the entertainment lineup, contacting them, the availability, equipment and so much.

It was so refreshing and wonderful to see people out and about again coming back to a normal life of seeing people’s faces, smiles, people having a great time after a hectic couple of years we have had to endure.

The purpose of the ACC Summerfest is to strengthen the Armenian community, to get together with our families, friends to gather and to create everlasting memories, to preserve our Armenian culture and heritage by listening to our music, to support our local Armenian businesses and a lot more.

It certainly is not easy to plan an event like ACC Summerfest. I would like to thank the organizing committee, volunteers, bartenders, cleaners and all those who gave a helping hand to make this a great experience for all. I appreciate you all very much. It takes a lot of energy. I observed and witnessed it and I should say that you are all heroes. It was an excellent weekend.

I say thank you a billion trillion times. That is even not enough.

I and I am sure everyone enjoyed themselves all weekend. It was such a fantastic weekend and even the weather cooperated with no rain. It was so beautiful and comfortable. Mother Nature blessed us. It was great.

I am looking forward to the 2023 Armenian Community Centre Summerfest next year and I am counting the days!

In Armenian I shall say Vartzgernit Gadar, Shad Shunoragalem. Asdvadz bahe tzez polorit!

Toronto Pearson Airport, Baggage and Flight delays and cancelations

Toronto Pearson Airport is a huge mess with a sea of baggage everywhere and huge hassle for passengers and including other Canadian Airports with canceled flights because of lack of staff. They should have hired more people when they were getting out of this so-called pandemic and they knew they were getting out of this months ago. They should have called people back for their jobs and shouldn’t have laid people off in the first place.

Passengers are waiting for hours to get through security, customs and from check in to gate. Some flights are being delayed or canceled.


That is why I always say go to Airport early. These are prime examples.

Lack of upper management and lack of professionalism. They just look for profit and are greedy not giving back. They used to give you food and freebies on flights, that is lacking too. You gotta pay for it. As if you aren’t paying enough for your flight. Even baggage fees too. It’s ridiculous. Fees for everything. It’s crazy!

The art of communication in person is lacking. People just don’t know how to handle things in a physical form anymore. Airlines and Airports want you to email your problems to them. You can’t talk to anybody on the phone instantly anymore. It’s horrible and you need to wait for hours until you get a hold of someone.
Technology is good in some senses, but it shouldn’t take over everything.

That is why people are in this mess. Don’t put down the airlines or airports, it’s the people who are managing and making the decisions that are the problem. No logic whatsoever.

I still love Toronto Pearson Airport and travel life. Nothing will deter me away. The Big kahunas are the ones we should let go of and put people in charge of those who actually care for passengers.