Emerging from the fog….

For those of you who follow this thing, you probably noticed that I disappeared mid-festival. I was not carried away by the un-hinged Friends With You balloon nor was I locked-up in a padded room for a couple of months. I was suffering from what we in the festival business like to call festival burn-out. This year’s festival went very smoothlyand everyone I spoke to had great things to say about how everything came together. What was most interesting to me was the range of reaction to the work this year. People either loved or hated the same thing which led to some very interesting discussions. For me, that is a clear signal that something is working.

As soon as we wrapped things up, I was quickly on the road again looking at work for next year and beyond. I had a wonderful July in France and England and then - after a couple of weeks in the sweltering heat of Toronto - cooled off in Banff, Vancouver and Edinburgh. I returned this weekend, hoping that I would be able to walk to work without having to wring out my shirt once there. Sadly, Toronto is in the middle of its final heat wave of the summer so I’ll have to grin and bear it for at least another week. So in an effort to stay cool over the next couple days, I’ll throw up some photos and videos from my summer trips to give you a sense of what is going on in other parts of the cultural world.

A windy day in rainbow city

Queen’s Park is full of motion and color on this windy Wednesday evening. A few of the taller sculptural pieces had to be taken down due to high winds. The kids in the park are still having a great time bouncing against the inflateables. Here are a couple of pics.

Maki Nomiya gets ready for her YDS Debut

Just down in the square. Looks like the rain is done. Very happy not to have our J-pop show rained out. Hope we get a great crowd for our last night in the square. It should be weird and wonderful.

Bruce and the BNL Get Ready for CDN Songbook

It is going to be a great show tonight.

First Look at Ship of Fools

Was just over at Trinity Bellwoods Park to do my first wander through the Ship of Fools. It is a classic Cardiff Miller experience, full of intricate detail that could keep you exploring for hours. Be sure to check it out during the festival. Here is a first look at what lies below deck.

Opening Night of Magnetic North

For the past four years, Luminato and Magnetic North have had overlapping dates. Ken Cameron, the AD at MNTF, and I have come up with a number of ideas to help make the best of this. We have given three Canadian companies - Vancouver Playhouse (Where the Blood Mixes), Catalyst (Nevermore) and 2B Theatre Company (Homage) - the opportunity to play both festivals. And for the past two years we have invited international presenters to attend both events. The only downside was that we are never able to come to one another’s event.

This year MNTF is just down the road in Kitchener Waterloo and given that it opens on Wednesday (two days before us) I jumped on the opportunity to attend my first Magnetic North opening night. It also gave me a chance to see reknowned clown artists Mump and Smoot for the first time. Below is a picture taken from the post-show reception at the KW Museum. Congrats to Ken, Ann and the rest of Magnetic North team on another successful opening.