November Events 2012

The days are getting colder and darker :(  Still, nothing is going to stop me from exploring out :P

In Toront/Greater Toronto Area
- Beautylicious (October 25-November 4)
- Cirque Éloize's iD Circus Show (November 1-3)
- International Home Show (November 1-4)
- SpeakEasy's Fall Art Fair (November 1-7)
- The Everything to do with Sex Show (November 2-4)
- The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair (November 2-11)
- Oakville World of Threads Festival (November 2-18)
- Burlington Studio Tour (November 3-4)
- Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival (November 6-17) 
- Toronto World of Threads Festival (November 9-December 2)
- Luxury Chocolate Show (November 4) 
- Ajax Santa Claus Parade - Santa's Magical Parade of Lights (November 10) 
- The Gourmet Food and Wine Expo (November 15-18)
- Oakville Tree Lighting Ceremony and Santa Claus Parade (November 16-17) 
- Seasons Christmas Show (November 16-18) 
- Santa's Parade of Lights Oshawa (November 17)
- Vaughan of a Kind Art & Craft Show (November 17)
- Holiday Magic at Bloor-Yorkville (November 17 - December)
- Cavalcade of Lights (November 17-December 31)
- Toronto Santa Claus Parade (November 18) 
- One of a Kind Christmas Show & Sale (November 22-December 2)
- Richmond Hill Santa Claus Parade (November 25)



Mid-distance to Toronto 
- Stratford's Victorian Christmas Trail (November 3-December 20)
- Orillia Christmas Artisan's Tour (November 9-10)
- Burlington/Hamilton Holiday House Tour of Distinctive Homes (November 9-11)
- Hamilton Santa Claus Parade (November 10)
- Port Perry Tree Lighting (November 16) and Santa Claus Parade (November 24)
- Niagara Falls Santa Claus Parade (November 17)
- Christmas Magic at Cobourg (November 23-January 2)


Far from Toronto 
- Wassail Prince Edward County Winery Event (November 17-December 2)
- Amherstburg River Lights Festival (November 16-January 1)
- Kingville Fantasy of Lights (November 17-January 6)
- Poinsettia Christmas & Candlelight Event (November 22-25)
- Christmas in the County (November 23-25)

Cambridge Night Santa Claus Parade

Christmas in the County

Downtown Torotno Winter Magic Ice Sculptures

Christmas in the County

Toronto Santa Claus Parade

Toronto Santa Claus Parade

Toronto Santa Claus Parade

Waterloo Santa Claus Parade

Holiday Homes Tour (No photos can be taken inside)

Calvacade of Lights

Calvacade of Lights

Luxury Chocolate Show

Downtown Toronto Winter Magic Windows Decorating Competition

Seasons Christmas Show

Seasons Christmas Show

Gourmet Food and Wine Expo

Gourmet Food and Wine Expo

Poinsettia Christmas & Candlelight Event

Poinsettia Christmas & Candlelight Event

October Events 2012

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving long weekend!

Here's what happening in and out of town this month:


In Toront/Greater Toronto Area
- Grindhouse Ghoulies (October 12)
- Chinese Canadian for the Environment - Action Matters (October 13)
- Creativ Festival (October 12-14)
- Show & Sale of Fine Miniatures (October 13-14)
- Stouffville Studio Tour (October 13-14) 
- Richmond Hill Studio Tour & Art Sale (October 13-14) 
- Fall Into Nature (October 6, 7, 8, 13, 14)  
- Downey's Farm Pumpkinfest (October 1-31)
- Powerhouse of Terror (October 11-30) 
- Halloween Haunt (October 12-28)
- Screemers (October 12-31) 
- Camp Spooky (October 13-28)
- Toronto After Dark Film Festival (October 18-26)
- Toronto Zombie Walk (October 20)
- Mississauga Artisan Studio Tour (October 20-21) 
- Soupstock (October 21) 
- Fall Cottage Life Show (October 26-28)
- Art Toronto Focus Asia 2012 (October 26-29) 
- TEDx Toronto (October 26)
- Made By Hand Show (October 27)
- Street Closing Block Party (October 31)
- Corn Mazes in the GTA (October 1-31)
- Cirque du Soleil's Amaluna (October 9-November 4)
- Yonge Lawrence Village Artwalk (October 11-November 1)

- Toronto Chocolate Festival (October 13-November 4) 
- Casa Loma Events: Boo-Tastic Trick or Treat; Ghost Tracking; Dracula - A Love Story (various dates in October and November) 


 
Mid-distance to Toronto
- Guelph Studio Tour (October 12-14)
- Waterford Pumpkin Festival (October 12-14)
- Hamilton Fall Garden & Mom Show (October 19-28) 
- Birtch Farms Pumpkin Festival (October 20-21)
- Haunted Harbour (October 25-27) 
- Halloween Marsh Monster Mystery (October 27)
- Howells Pumpkin Farm (October 1-31) 


Far from Toronto
- Saunders Farm: Days of Fall-tastic Fun or Nights of Terror (October 1-31) 

Howells Farm Pumpkinfest

Fall Into Nature: Scavenger Hunt at Hilton Falls

Fall Into Nature: Cable Car Ride Up the Hill at Kelso Conservation Area

Pumpkin Patch at Birtch Farms

Corn Maze Fun

Halloween Street Block Party at Church Street

September Events 2012

Summer is over but the weather is still very nice for outdoor activities.

Check them out by clicking on each event!

In Toronto
- Toronto International Film Festival (September 6-16)
- Queen Street West Art Crawl (September 14-16)
- Bloor West Village Ukrainian Festival (September 14-16)
- Thornhill Village Festival (September 15) 
- Vietnamese Lantern Festival (September 15)
- Fortune Cooking Food Festival (September 16)
- Korean Harvest Festival (September 15-16)
- Fall Home Show (September 20-23)
- The Word on the Street Festival (September 23)
- Ontario Science Center Free Community Day (September 23) 
- Canada's Baking and Sweets Show (September 28-30)
- Scotiabank Nuit Blanche (September 29-30)
- Pedestrian Sunday Festival in Kensington Market (September 30)
- Soupalicious (September 30)
- Toronto Underground Market 1st B-day (September 30)
 
 
Mid-distance to Toronto
-  James Street Hamilton Arts Supercrawl (September 14-15)
- Doors Open King Town (September 15)
- St. George Applefest (September 15-16)
- Uxbridge Studio Tour (September 15-16)
- Ocala Winery Harvest Festival (September 15-16)
- Doors Open Waterloo Region (September 15)
- Doors Open Haldimand County (September 15)
- Hills of Erin Studio Tour (September 15-16, 22-23) 
- Savour Stratford Culinary Festival (September 21-23)
- Durham Savour the Season Festival (September 12-23) 
- Niagara Wine Festival (September 21-31) 
- Uxbridge Celebration of the arts: ART Happening Street pARTy (September 22)


Far from Toronto
- Native Festival (September 15-16)
- Wild for the Arts (September 15-16)
- Door Open Quinte West (September 15)
- Hike Haliburton Festival (September 20-23)
- Muskoka Autumn Studio Tour (September 22-23, 29-30)

Nuit Blanche - Interactive Landscape Dune

Nuit Blanche - Japanese Tea Ceremony

Nuit Blanche - Fireflies

Nuit Blanche - Circulatory System

Nuit Blanche - Swan Lake

Nuit Blanche - Endgame

August Events 2012

A lot of things are happening in August. Check them out by clicking on each event!

In Toronto
- Dusk Dances (August 2-7)
- Caribana Parade (August 4) 
- Rogers Cup Tennis Tournament (August 4-12) 
- Wild Blueberry Festival (August 11)
- Taste of Danforth: Greek food festival (August 10-12)
- Blackout Festival (August 10-19)
- Five Senses Festival (August 17-18)
- International Street Festival (August 17-19)
- Canadian National Exhibition CNE (August 17-September 3) 
- A Synonym for Love: Opera on-the-move (August 19-31)
- Toronto Buskerfest (August 23-26)
- Fan Expo (August 23-26)
- TaiwanFest @ Harbourfront (August 24-26)
- Shakespeare in High Park: A Mid-summer Night's Dream (June 26-September 2)
- Cavalia's Odysseo (August-September 2) 
- Circus! The Exhibition @ Ontario Science Center (till September 3)
- Emerging Artist Summer Exhibition (August 31-September 2)
- Fashionality (May-September 3)
 


Mid-distance to Toronto
- Aurora Jazz Festival (August 3-5)
- Kempenfest at Barrie's waterfront (August 3-6)
- Cobourg Sandcastle Festival (August 4-5)
- Orillia Waterfront Festival (August 10-12)
- Teddy Bear Picnic (August 16)
- Markham Jazz Festival (August 16-19)
- Mosaic South Asian Heritage Festival (August 16-19)
- Barrie Caribfest (August 17-19) 
- Dundas Cactus Festival (August 17-19)
- Port Credit Buskerfest (August 17-19)
- Burlington Sandcastle/Children Festival (August 18-19)
- Summerfeast (August 14-September 2) 
- Winona Peach Festival (August 24-26)
- Copper Kettle Festival (August 25)


Far from Toronto
- Balm Beach Summerama (August 10-11) 
- Turkey Point Summer fest (August 8-12)
- Grand Bend Aqua fest (August 10-12)
- Goderich Celtic Roots Festival (August 10-12)
- Kingston Sheep Dog Trials (August 10-12)
- Verona Cattail Festival (August 10-12)
- Canal, Railway, Music Festival (August 10-12) 
- Sauble Beach Sand Festival (August 10-12)
- Sundridge Sunflower Festival (August 10-12)
- Forest Festival (August 15-19)
- Leamington Tomato Festival (August 15-19)
- Buckhorn Fine Art Festival (August 17-19)
- A Cirque-Tacular Event at Blue Mountain Village (August 18-19)
- Port Dover Summer Festival (August 18-19)
- Athens Cornfest (August 18)
- Tecumseh Corn Festival (August 23-26)
- Balloonpalooza (August 25-26)

An example of a sand sculpture festival

Lots of arts and crafts and other vendor booths at Kempenfest

Fire show at Toronto Buskerfest

Another show at Toronto Buskerfest... very impressive

Food at Taste of Danforth

Have a happy long weekend everyone! :)

July 2012 Events

Busy with online courses, not a lot of time or motivation to update this blog :P I have decided to give monthly instead of weekly updates/suggestions. And then update as I come up with more ideas.

So far for this month:

Food Festivals 

- Ribfest (June-August)
- Summerlicious (July 6-22)
- Taste of Lawrence (July 6-8)
- Night It Up! (July 13-15)
- Taste of Thailand (July 14-15)
- Lobster Lovers Festival (July 19)
- T & T Waterfront Night Market (July 20-22)

- Hot & Spicy Festival (July 20-22)
- TO Food Festival (July 29)

Other Festivals

- Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition (July 6-8)
- Lavender Festival (July 14-15)
- Farm Crawl Hamilton (July 14)
- Beaches International Jazz Festival (July 20-29)
- Live Green Toronto Festival (July 21)

Click on the title of each event to see more details.

Have a great summer everyone! Stay cool! 

Bears love the purple lavender fields! Hard to believe this place is just 1 hr drive from Toronto!

Your typical summer street/food festival. There's almost one (or more than one) per week in Toronto.

Your typical outdoor food selling booth at a night market festival . A variety of multicultural cuisine and snacks are available. Some work till late nights which is atypical in Toronto.

Outdoor art exhibition. All FREE!

  

Luminato: The Festival of Creativity

The Encampment

1000 Tastes of Toronto

Carretilla Initiative

June 8-17, 2012
http://www.luminato.com/ 


This is my second time volunteering at this festival, but definitely not my second time enjoying the events that are offered by this festival. Most events are free and accessible by public transportation. The unique aspect about Luminato is that it offers activities in a wide range of topics, from visual arts, to dance, to music, to theatre, to magic, to food, to fashion, to literature etc. 


Last time I was just an ambassador while this year I took on a new role and was one of the Volunteer Team Leader. It was an interesting and rewarding experience because I got to manage adults (normally I'd be managing kids only!!!). This motivates me to look into this field and I'm looking to possibly enroll in a volunteers management course to expand my skills.

Ok, let's go back and talk about this year's festival. I think the 1000 Tastes of Toronto turned out pretty well. I think the distillery district was a great venue to host the event and there were a lot of variety in food choices and the price was reasonable ($5 per dish). The Carretilla Initiative was pretty cool idea as well: real-time cooking on wheels with the participants and then eating the meal together. The Encampment at Fort York is an educational project depicting memories/impact of the war of 1812. Each installation within the 200 tents are different. Personally I think the exhibit can be more meaningful if they have a sound installation within each tent explaining briefly the story behind each one.

Others such as the magic shows look interesting (e.g. blind magician, magic in the dark etc.) but each ticket costs $35 :( (only 1 of the 3 show is free). There are plenty of free concerts on weeknights or weekend nights, depending whether you like those musicians or not. The art installation is pretty limited this year... there is one in the ROM that I want to check out, called Beethoven 1-32, which uses visual arts to represent music... a very innovative idea... so looking at the painting = listening to the actual music! Should evoke the same emotions...


Have a great weekend everyone... the weather is gonna be awesome for outdoor activities!

More things to share...

New Japanese Ramen Shop (Same chain as Guu)

51 Baldwin St.

http://kintonramen.com/

 




















Free HK Movie This Friday

May 25, 7:00PM

Isabel Bader Theatre (93 Charles St W at Queen's Park)      

Overheard 2 窃听风云2

Directors Felix Chong, Alan Mak | Cast: Lau Ching Wan, Louis Koo, Daniel Wu
Hong Kong 2011 | 119 min | Cantonese with English subtitles

A crime thriller about greed and betrayal

FREE Admission - Ticketing begins at 6PM on May 25

http://reelasian.com/index.php/k2/item/245-reel-asian-asian-heritage-month


 


Doors Open Toronto
May 26-27, 10am-5pm
All around Toronto

FREE admission

More than 135 architecturally, historically, culturally and socially significant buildings will open their doors for the weekend and highlight the people who built our city

http://wx.toronto.ca/inter/culture/doorsopen.nsf/BuildingsAll?OpenView&count=999

Art Battle  

Tuesday May 29, 7pm, The Great Hall

Tickets $15 / $10 Students (w/ ID)

Live painting competition   

http://www.artbattleto.com/

http://mycitylives.com/#!/toronto-on-ca/videos/4f71d89b993837607900c322

 

Eco Swap @ Sage Fair

June 2, 2012 11am – 6pm; June 3, 2012, 11am – 5pm

Metro Toronto Convention Centre, 255 Front St West
$6 for all Swapsity members, $10 for non-members

Swap books, DVDs, CDs, Blu-rays and records!     

http://www.swapsity.ca/SwapZone

http://www.sagefair.com/

Weekend of Mar 31-Apr 1

[Aside] I'm a bit behind in updating my blog lately because I've been distracted by my Ipod Apps... some games are really addictive lol :P

Earth Hour Celebration
March 31, 7:30-9:30pm
Distillery District
http://earthhour.wwf.ca/earthhour/index.html

The official celebration of Earth Hour with WWF (Turn off the lights for 1 hr to raise global environmental awareness for combating climate change) in Torono with performances, art show and more! Participants are encouraged to bring along candles, glowsticks, lanterns, and flashlights!








One of a Kind Spring Art Show and Sale
March 28-April 1, 10am-9pm
$12 online, $14 at door
Direct Energy Center, CNE
http://www.oneofakindshow.com/toronto/

Showcasing handmade arts and crafts products! A nice exhibition to find unique gifts for friends and family.










A Night of Fashion, Art, and Music for Japan
March 30, 7pm-2am
$10 (80% of that goes to charity - Habitat for Humanity Japan)
The Great Hall
http://www.japanaidtoronto.com/index.html

A night of fashion show, live music, silent auction, and dancing to raise money for the Japan's Earthquake and Tsunami survivors


Piano Recital of Music from Beethoven, Brahms, Webern, Bach by Erion Tulina
March 30, 8pm
FREE
Grace Church on the Hill
http://www.gracechurchonthehill.ca/