Orillia Beatles Festival

This was our 3rd year participating in the Orillia Beatles Festival. Orillia, which is a small city about 1.5 hours away from Toronto hosts this annual festival in the memory of the Beatles - and the Hare Krishna's are an integral part of it. The city management and the festival organizers are very favorable and encourage us to participate every year. They've also provided us with on-stage slots for Kirtan, which have been led by Toronto's very own, Gaura Sakti group.  This year, the festival experienced lower than usual attendance (perhaps cut down by the festival entrance fee)! Still, the low numbers did not deter the sankirtan warriors as they used the opportunity to hit the streets of Orillia for kirtan and book distribution. A total of about 150 books were distributed. This was also the first out of town sankirtan festival where we explored prasadam distribution (Govinda's booth). We setup a booth next to our book tent, and served prasad in various combo meals. Although the sales were not spectacular given the number of festival goers - we made a great foot-in for combining prasadam "sales" with outdoor sankirtan festivals! We hope to bring more of those to action next summer.

Special Kirtan Performance by Gaura Sakti

Sankirtan Nectar from Toronto

One of the most enthusiastic sankirtan devotees in Toronto,  Bhakta Mayur, goes almost every day on sankirtan - whether there is a big festival with a team of 20 devotees, or by himself, his determination to share Srila Prabhupada's books is unshakeable.

Here is an excerpt from a compilation of some amazing sankirtan nectar, which was recently shared on the international book distribution portal.

We also met one boy who was I think about twenty years of age, and Jessica started a conversation near Rosedale garden. The guy said “I tried yoga but it is really hard to get it, and kinda’ boring”, and Jessica handed him a book and said “It’s OK you can just read the rear cover of this book”. Srila Prabhupada writes about the perfection of yoga, how we are not this body and that we are pure servants of Lord Krishna, and how what we really must do is realize this by chanting Hare Krishna. So then she said “let’s chant”, and the young boy and his girlfriend joined us in chanting the Mahamantra. Jessica showed him her beads and she explained what is Krishna consciousness, what the effect of the Mahamantra is in in our daily lives. Really amazing.

A Little Goes a Long Way at Toronto Carribean Festival

As many of you, recently we participated in Carribean FEstival here in Toronto! Here is an article by ISKCON News on the event!

Toronto Caribana