The Manifesto urban arts festival took over Toronto's public spaces last weekend, bringing a positive end to a week plagued by violent crime.
Images promoting the festival -- which featured performers k-os, k'naan and Rascalz -- were splashed across the cover of local weekly Eye Magazine.
Meanwhile, bold text on the cover of rival Now Magazine urged Torontonians to support a ban on handguns to quell the crime wave.
For Manifesto organizer Che Kothari, the juxtaposition of the two covers in newspaper boxes throughout the city was symbolic of the festival's founding principles.
"People talk about banning handguns, but what about bringing it back to engaging young people with the arts?" he says.
"There's a lot of violence happening in the city of Toronto. When you see this violence you start thinking about, 'what is the root cause of this violence? How do you re-engage people in society?' Arts and culture are the best way to do it."
Manifesto was launched in 2007 with the mandate of giving young people a platform to show off their skills. Venues included North York and Scarborough locations in an effort to bring the festival to the communities it was meant to serve.
"Manifesto is about giving people who might not have the biggest voice a stage," says Kothari.
"We want to bring together people to celebrate all the amazing initiatives that are happening constantly and show people that if you team up you can really put something on the map."
Most events were held between Friday and Sunday and included dance competitions, a 70-foot graffiti wall painted by local street artists and a barber battle.
The main event was a free concert at Nathan Phillips Square on Sunday that attracted about 7,000 people. It was followed by a DJ battle at Circa Nightclub featuring hip hop pioneers Pete Rock and DJ Premier.
