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

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!