The Toronto Waterfront Festival, known for featuring the world’s largest rubber duck, won’t be returning this year due to a “lack of funding,” organizers say.
The festival was originally set for September but organizers said the event will be taking a break in 2026.
“A perfect storm of circumstances led to this difficult decision. For the first time in its 16-year history, the Toronto Waterfront Festival (TWF) received no grant funding from any level of government,” organizers said in a statement.
They also said the upcoming FIFA World Cup has created “considerable competition for corporate sponsorship, and therefore the festival finds itself in a challenging funding position for 2026.”
“As a result, the board of Water’s Edge Festivals & Events has decided to take one year off, regroup, and return with an event the Waterfront deserves.”
Organizers said the team is looking ahead to 2027 and announced that the rubber duck, affectionately known as “Mama Duck,” will be back to anchor next year’s event marking 10 years since the huge yellow face arrived in Toronto.
“Mama Duck floated into Toronto in 2017 to celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary. A decade later, we felt it was only fitting for her to waddle back for Canada’s 160th in 2027,” Victoria Mahoney, co-producer of the festival said in a release.
Mama Duck is six stories tall and weighs 16,000 pounds. Organizers said the duck has brought more than one-million people to the city’s waterfront, raking in $9 million on the last two visits combined.