Friday, August 24, 2007

Summer celebrations, from swinging jazz to sizzling shopping

Canada is in the midst of a swinging summer, with jazz fests running across the country. In Toronto, the Beaches Jazz Festival began on July 25 with a fundraiser for the Toronto East General Hospital Foundation. The event was held at the Balmy Beach Club and featured hot jazz and tasty samples from a selection of fine restaurants in the area. Sponsors such as Perrier, Trillium Foundation, Pizza Pizza and Mill Street Brewery helped to make the annual event a great success.

While the Beaches Jazz Festival is an occasion Torontonians can expect to look forward to every year, the city welcomed a new event this August with ChickAdvisor.com's chic Queen Street Shop Crawl. Launched in 2006, the website has already become the Canadian woman's go-to for advice on all things fashion and beauty. "I was looking for a new salon in Toronto, so I went online to see what I could find," explains the young co-founder of ChickAdvisor.com, Ali de Bold, "When I finally found a listing of salons with some reviews, it was American. There was nothing in Canada like it, so we decided to make one."

ChickAdvisor.com quickly gained traction with Toronto fashionistas, female focused media, and national beauty retailers. The website allows women to share their experience and rate products "from electronics to electrolysis." A former insurance claims adjuster and current student of Radio and Television Arts, Ali brought the on-line community to life on August 9 with a "Shop Crawl" along trendy Queen Street West. An impressive crowd attended the three- hour event, which featured special retail discounts, freebies, and mingling opportunities. Sponsors included RedFlagDeals.com, SunSilk, Kiehl's, Lipstick Powder 'N Paint, Corner Office Beauty.

Published Women's Post, August 24 2007

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