Toronto Turkish Festival 2009 - 1 of 9

The music drew me in to the Toronto Turkish Festival. I heard it when we exited the Eaton Centre and I had to see what was going on across the street in Dundas Square.

There were lots of interesting sights and sounds. I'm sure the food and drink was excellent, too, but the crowds were too deep at each booth to see it.

People seemed really happy to be there. When I expressed my appreciation of the traditional Turkish music, a couple near me just beamed.

Next year, I want to go early and see the whirling dirvishes.

I took lots of photos:

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Toronto Turkish Festival 2009 -2 of 9

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The third photo shows marbled paper ("Ebru") which, according to the booklet, is a traditional Turkish craft. It was too crowded for me to get close enough to get good shots of the paper; it was pretty.

The two musicians in the bottom photo were playing when I arrived. According to the schedule, they are Mehmet Kinik and Betul Yegul. I enjoyed their playing and singing.

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Canadian Forces information booth.

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I think this was an Ottoman military band ("Mehteran" according to the schedule).

Those are drummers in the two middle photos. They were amazing. It looked like they were beating on a big box. It sounded great; I just wish the volume had been a bit lower.

(At least I think they were both drumming. Looking at the photos now, it might have been just the one guy who was drumming.)