
While Toronto is often dubbed the New York of the North, heart-throb Harry Styles—the former One Direction frontman with a well-documented affection for watermelon and unapologetically flamboyant fashion—is favouring the actual Big Apple this summer to promote his forthcoming album, Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. The rollout includes a 30-night residency at Madison Square Garden along with tour dates spanning the US, Europe, Brazil and Australia. Toronto (a.k.a. the Little Apple), meanwhile, didn’t make the cut.
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The silver lining? Local fans can still show their devotion by buying merch. Coinciding with the March 6 album launch, Harry Styles—or his army of marketing managers—is bringing a one-weekend-only pop-up to Queen Street West’s Welcome Market, adding exclusive merch to the market’s usual vintage and handicrafts selection.
Exactly what will be inside the Toronto shop remains hush-hush, but Styles’s website is already stacked with limited-edition cameras, pre-order vinyl box sets, delightfully anachronistic cassette tapes and branded fanny packs—perfect for holding the pennies you’ll have left after blowing all your cash on concert memorabilia from a show you never actually got to attend.
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Does it all feel a little unfair? As Styles would say, “Just stop your crying—it’s a sign of the times.”
Erin Hershberg is a freelance writer with nearly two decades of experience in the lifestyle sector. She currently lives in downtown Toronto with her husband and two children.