Everyone hates Toronto. I get it. I've travelled from the west coast to the east coast of Canada, and whenever I say I was born and raised in this city, I get the same averted eyes, the same overt sneer. But despite it all, I'm still proud to say I'm from here, especially with the city's diversity and broad range of cultural events. The latest fest to crowd the streets is Luminato, a celebration of arts (visual, dance, music, and theatre) that runs from June 5-14. It's a time when Toronto's dirtiness and scuzziness (yes, I do agree they exist) are nicely shielded from tourists' eyes by a cornucopia of strange happenings.
I'm not an artsy type, really. I like music, and occasionally I'll visit a museum or gallery, but it takes a lot to persuade me. That's what makes Luminato such an interesting festival: it makes that high-brow art form more accessible and appealing to the masses.
For example, there's a really huge red ball making its way around the city. I don't know what it's for, nor do I know what it represents (probably something about perception), but it's turning heads everywhere it goes. The last I heard, it was wedged under the bridge at Nathan Phillips Square, where some people stared, while others posed next to it and friends took photos.
Also of note was the attempt by over 1,000 guitarists to smash the Guinness world record for most simultaneous players. Through word of mouth and advertisements, the hopefuls gathered in Yonge-Dundas Square (normally a den of homeless people and coffee-drinking unemployables), guitars in hand. While they fell just short of the record by about 114 people, it showed an incredible camraderie, and brought people together who normally ignore one another's eyes on the streetcar.
And really, these two events are the mere tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of planned arts installations and features scheduled for the next 6 days, definitely worth catching if you're in town. There's a multimedia punk operetta, a celebration of Darwin's natural selection theory and its relation to sex, and even a carnival of cuisine, and that's just a few.
Maybe you'll even stop hating Toronto, even if it's just for one week.
Visit the Luminato website and see for yourself.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1. I watched the dress rehearsal last night for Cirque du Soleil at H20 park and it wasn't impressive. Maybe it's my lower class upbringing or my job as a trade's person but I just couldn't get my head around their artistic performance.
The lyrics are just absolute jibberish and non-sensical, the drumming while rythmic to a point is boring and very repetitive. The bicycle acrobats are out of sync with each other and out of time with the musical performance. The fire truck responding to a call during the performance was more interesting, as security scrambled to stop pedestrian and vehicular traffic so the truck could get out of it's fire hall. I wasn't impressed with the lack-lustre Cirque performance, it was a typical Cirque over the top artistic nonsense that only makes sense to the performers.
As for the venue, H20 park, well what a silly place to hold an event such as this. While the setting is in a park, they are setup right outside a Fire Hall 334 and EMS station 36. During the show last night when the wind picked up I got to breathe in the wonderful fumes from the diesel generator sets lined up in front of the fire hall.
So if you like nonsense art in crowded, packed venues with difficult ingress and egress then for sure take in the show. If you dislike crowds, traffic woes, difficult access and lack lustre artsy fartsy stuff, then do yourself and the kids a favour and rent a movie.
Mr.Surfer
Posted at 9:25AM on Jun 15th 2009 by MrSurfer