Archive for April, 2008

Welcome Note

What does freedom mean to you? In six words, it seems like such a simple question. The answer becomes more elusive as we search closer for its meaning. Put simply, the Toronto Freedom Festival believes that “freedom” entails an individual’s right to choose for oneself. However, in order to accurately make any decision – in any area of our lives - we must be responsible as human beings and know all of the facts. It is with this notion in mind that I welcome you to the 2nd Annual Toronto Freedom Festival and encourage you to enjoy an idea-provoking experience, offering thoughtful and passionate groups a forum to expose their ideas, and facts, of how they express their ideas to thousands of other forward-thinking individuals.

So what do we have in store for you? In maintaining the TFF vision of Freedom, an explosion of talent, awareness, innovation and passion will scatter across Queen’s Park on Saturday, May 3rd. Our ‘Speak Free’ stage will present the words and wisdom of important figures in our community including Canada’s renowned ‘Prince of Pot’, Mark Emery, CHRY ‘News Now’ host and spoken word artist, Lady Loxx, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition’s Alison Mryden, Nora Wolf, Reiki Master, meditation leader and many more. Waxing philosophic on topics such as the freedom to not be extricated, freedom of expression, freedom from bad prohibition, freedom to party responsibly and the freedom ‘to be’, our presenters will encourage festival goers to respect one’s right to speak — freely.

I am incredibly proud to announce that TFF has partnered with the iconic Tommy Chong to express some of his ideas about freedom. TFF will be screening Tommy’s engaging documentary a/k/a Tommy Chong, which tells his enraging story of being targeted during the U.S. “War on Drugs” and how and why he was arrested and ultimately put in jail for nine months.

Tommy’s story is symbolic of our struggle for that ever-elusive state of being: freedom. If you are not outraged at something, you’re doing something wrong.

Now for the fun stuff, we are thrilled to bring to the table, yet again, a line-up of some of our community’s best musical acts. Celebrating the SOUND of Freedom and the freedom of MOVEMENT, TFF is bringing three music stages to the festival: the ‘Live Free’ Main Stage, the ‘Dance Free’ Stage and the Solid Apparel DnB Stage. The Global Marijuana March, will take its 10th annual tour around the city at 2:00 p.m. With over 200 cities across the globe in participation, Toronto boasted the highest rated attendance last year, with over 12,000 peaceful marchers celebrating cannabis and cannabis culture.

As Clarence Darrow once said, “You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the another’s freedom. You can only be free if I am free”. And so, I encourage you to take part in our festivities Saturday, May 3rd – making a statement that while a person’s choice may not be the same as yours, their freedom to choose should be.

Sincerely,

Neev - Toronto Freedom Festival Co-Founder