Day 13: Wakestock « Data On The Move

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

This morning, we woke up (sluggishly) and began to prepare for a long day. After walking Data, Julia and I set out for Wakestock. We stopped and picked up some Cinnabon before getting on the subway. When we got to the ferry docks (the festival is on the Toronto Islands), there was a very long line of people trying to get to the islands. There are three ports on the islands, with Centre Island being where the festival was, but there are no separate lines for individual boats, so we had to wait. Once we got through, we took the ferry to Hanlan’s Point, the westernmost port. It was hot and hazy, so we were already a bit uncomfortable (and regretting not bringing swimsuits) by the time we began walking. There is a beach on the southwest side of the island that is “clothing optional,” so we thought it would be interesting to stop by and see what was going on. We quickly discovered, however, that “clothing optional” really means “clothing optional for middle-aged gay men,” which was fine, but stopped being interesting pretty quickly.

As we made our way around the island, we could hear (bad) music from Wakestock getting louder and louder. Once we got to Centre Island, it wasn’t hard to see where we needed to go. There was a large area of the island fenced off with all sorts of stuff going on inside – bands, wakeboarding, skateboarding, motorbike jumping, booths, drinking and so on. “Professional” camera equipment was prohibited without media credentials. Luckily, I’m good at talking my way into media credentials. I did have a small adventure when two different ATMs on the island told me my bank was an “invalid institution,” which probably means that my bank and its affiliates aren’t supported by those particular ATMs. Another adventure I had was when a security guard informed me that my driver’s license will be expiring in October, which means I’ll have to try to renew it by mail.

By this point, we were already tired, hot and, honestly, feeling pessimistic. When we got in, we were allowed full access to pretty much the entire event, which made taking photos quite easy. We made a loop of the grounds, stopping to take photos of some skateboarders, before settling at the main stage at around 3:30 p.m. Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, who I like, was set to perform. His set lasted for approximately 45 minutes, and he was great. Julia had never been to a hip-hop concert before, and she had a blast. Afterwards, we went to the waterfront to photograph the wakeboarders for a little while. At 4:45 p.m., we made our way back to the main stage. The Reef bikini contest was winding down. Of the final 10 or so contestants, there was only one who didn’t look like a completely idiotic slut. Of course, she was eliminated.

Once the contest was over, one of my favorite groups, De La Soul, took the stage. Their debut album, 1989’s Three Feet High And Rising, is one of my favorites and one of the most influential albums in the genre. In any case, they were great. Julia really enjoyed them as well.

After the concert, we made our way back into the city for dinner. Rita (who did manage to get out of the city this morning) had recommended a restaurant called Terroni, but when we got there, the line was spilling onto the block and the host wasn’t even taking names. Instead, we walked around and found a place called Donatello. Their bruschetta was really good. My dinner was good, but not great, but Julia’s gnocchi was excellent. After dinner, we came back to the condo, let Data romp around for a while, and now Julia and Data have fallen asleep again.

Our plan for tomorrow is to clean Rita’s apartment for her, pack our things, reinstall the Thule top on the car, drop the keys off and bring Data to the dog park for a final workout before heading toward Cleveland.

Here are photos from today. As always, click “there’s more to this” to see them all.

A wakeboarder