Toronto’s festival season is a time for endless celebration. But amidst the sea of street food and carnival games is a group of individuals who face it head-on: bar and restaurant workers. 

The festival season kicked off in earnest last month, and with it came a relentless schedule that included Do West Fest, Taste of Little Italy, Toronto Pride and Toronto Jazz Fest (just to name a few). 

And while many of us have been out drinking boozy lemonades and looking for the best outdoor stage to meet up with our friends, the bartenders, servers and cooks of Toronto have been gearing up for high volumes of guests, long wait times, and lines that wind around the block. 

Jason Wise runs the kitchen at Get Well on Dundas West and assists with operations at Vivoli, a neighbourhood favourite in Little Italy. 

When summer started, Wise knew he was facing down the barrel of not one, but two festivals: Do West Fest and Taste of Little Italy.

"We spent the whole time leading up to it just getting prepared, double-checking, even making a faux inventory list of everything we needed," says Wise. 

Wise has been working festivals for years, so when it came time to make preparations, he made sure his team were up to speed in order to provide a knockout experience for guests. 

But as most bar and restaurant workers know, sometimes planning isn't enough and you have to operate on instinct. 

"You just have to go with your gut, and if you can’t find the right decision, then you make an executive one at that moment," says Wise. 

There are, however, some simple tricks to keep operations running as smoothly as possible, like streamlining a menu or even calling on friends to join the fray. 

"Sometimes you just call on friends who are also in the industry to help out over a given weekend," says Wise. "There's a lot of solidarity when it comes to festival season."

However, even with the right people having your back, most bars and restaurants can never truly account for exactly what kind of madness may come through thier doors. 

"There's a lot of people from out of town and there's a lot of people from the city, and people who are visiting expect to get everything right away," says Andrew Park, manager at O'Grady's & The Lodge, a multi-level venue on Church Street. "There's a psychological impact, because you're constantly running around."

Park was one of the many hospitality workers who worked the non-stop party that was Toronto's Pride, famously celebrated as one of the largest Pride events in the world. 

"If you can survive working during Pride, well, you can pretty much survive anything," says Park with a chuckle. 

While Park knew his team could handle it, what concerned him more was the crowd. 

"People have to realize and actually understand that we are here to give you a good time, and if you give us a hard time, there's a domino effect," says Park. 

For future festivals of any variety, Park hopes that any guest — whether local or visitors — will take into account the kind of grind that hospitality workers have to go through.

"I hope people can be more gracious, wherever they go, because whether it's Taste of the Danforth, Toronto Pride or hell, even the Calgary Stampede, people need to understand, we're there for you, not ourselves," says Park.

Toronto's festival season is far from over, so next time you head out to your festival of choice and decide to get some drinks or a quick bite, be patient and tip generously if you can — because these folk have earned it.