Halloween on Church Street has been a decades-long annual celebration in the heart of Toronto’s Church-Wellesley Village, but this year’s event is raising questions and safety concerns among some 2SLGBTQ+ community advocates stemming from excessive crowds.The two-day event, hosted by the Church-Wellesley Village BIA, saw a full road closure on Church Street between Carlton and Gloucester streets. Various videos posted on social media appeared to show a densely packed area with estimates suggesting tens of thousands of people descended upon the neighbourhood. Ahead of the event, officials advised up to 80,000 could be present and attendees were encouraged to be mindful of potential pickpockets.Travis Myers, a 2SLGBTQ+ advocate and founder of the community group Friends of Hanlan’s who decided to return home after seeing the crowd, said he has been hearing worrying reports after Saturday’s gathering.“There was no crowd control. There were major issues with the way that it was presented to the public as just a regular Halloween party, no mention the fact that this was taking place in the heart of the queer village,“ he said. “As a result, what we heard from so many people was that they had been sexually assaulted, they had been groped. People had been robbed and pickpocketed just because it seemed like it was more about the volume of people on the street than it was about promoting the needs and wants of the queer community and maintaining a safe space for people in the queer community.“Myers said the event has been a staple for so many who sought to celebrate Halloween with intricate costumes, adding people were able to explore their identities. However, he said it appears the nature of the event shifted after the COVID-19 pandemic with a bigger focus on bringing in people from outside the city.“From what I could see, people were coming from across the entire GTA not even realizing that they were on Church Street, not even being able to see the rainbows that are painted along the road,“ Myers said.Related:Halloween on Church returns to The Village for two-day event“There [were] people who were encountering gender diverse folks, trans folks, queer couples, and had nasty things to say to them. And even worse, there were people who you know didn’t think that they should respect the bodily autonomy of people around them.“Rodney Chan, a community advocate who has promoted the pedestrianization of Church Street in the Village, said he wasn’t at the event but echoed concerns over attendance.“Crowding, almost to a point where there’s crowd crush,“ he said when asked what comes to mind when hearing about Halloween on Church Street. “I think it’s something that is fun and should be fun, but over the last few years we’ve seen how crowded it’s become where it’s just kind of uncomfortable at this point.“The Church Street pedestrianization pilot project ended before the end of summer, but Chan suggested some of the associated improvements could have helped with the event.“We had more seating, we had vegetation around. I mean, people already kind of knew what the street was going to be like, so drivers already knew that this portion of Church Street was closed off to vehicle traffic. We also had security guards spaced out,“ he said.Toronto police respond to dozens of calls at Halloween on Church Street CityNews contacted the Church-Wellesley BIA Monday morning to ask for an interview to talk about the event, concerns raised about crowding, and potential supports offered by the City of Toronto after receiving $32,000 from the municipality. However, a response wasn’t received as of Monday evening.A Toronto Police Service spokesperson told CityNews officers received 86 calls for service about 107 incidents between 6 p.m. on Saturday and 6 a.m. on Sunday. The spokesperson said 97 of those incidents allegedly involved theft under $5,000 (which would include reports of pickpocketing) while the remaining reports involved lost property, a “driving complaint,“ mischief to a vehicle, trespassing, assault causing bodily harm and sexual assault.During an unrelated news conference Monday morning, Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw said officers try to work with groups ahead of time.“You certainly analyze what you can to establish what we can anticipate and make sure it is resourced accordingly,“ he said.Myers said the statistics offered may not paint a full picture of what happened throughout the event. “People reach out to us when they don’t feel comfortable reaching out to the police. The fractured relationship between the queer community and Toronto police has not fully been healed yet, and people don’t want to go through the rigmarole of reporting their sexual assault on an online forum and never hearing back,“ he said.Related:‘A huge success’: Community reflects on Church Street pedestrianization pilot projectMeanwhile, incoming Ward 13 Toronto Centre Coun. Curran Stikuts — who officially takes over from Chris Moise in mid-November — said he’s looking to work with the BIA and other officials to review the event.“It’s a really important part of our queer history. (It) comes out of a lot of our activism. Obviously, we’ve seen over the past weekend, the past years, frankly, that it’s grown exponentially with a lot more more folks coming in, and that’s created some some real pressures for the neighbourhood,“ he told reporters Monday afternoon.“There’s obviously work to be done to make sure that Halloween is a safe and welcoming environment for everybody on Church Street, and that involves making sure that we have those appropriate plans, traffic plans, safety mitigation, street closures in place that is going to be successful going forward.“Myers and Chan said they are hopeful things will improve at future events. “Maybe it should be a ticketed event? I heard someone say that it would be amazing to sell tickets and give the money to a queer charity … make sure that the advertising and messaging for this party centers the queer community,“ Myers said.“I think we really need to work forward to kind of restoring the kind of safety of the Halloween event and bringing it back to its roots,“ Chan said.With files from Denio Lourenco