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The city was definitely alive last weekend, with NXNE and the Luminato Festival giving us Torontonians plenty to do, see and hear. Luminato has got to be one of my favourite festivals, featuring a bit of everything from live music, to theatre to installation art.

 

I was particularly interested in checking out The Encampment, described by the creators as a “large-scale public participatory installation” which aims to “dig into the collective memory of a public space and its history”. Featuring 200 tents to commemorate aspects of the civilian history of the War of 1812 (now 200 years later), the exhibit is hauntingly beautiful. Each tent holds a different story, created by one of the 100 artistic collaborators who worked on the project. Luckily, even if you missed Luminato, this particular exhibit runs until June 24^th, and is open from 7:30pm – 11pm. I highly recommend you check it out.

Luminato also did it’s best to impress me by featuring a free concert from one of my favourite singer/songwriters, Kathleen Edwards. I checked out the outdoor show beside Massey Hall on Saturday and enjoyed the hot sun (avec sunscreen of course) and enjoyed every sweaty second. Not sure if the crowd were fans, or just happened to check out the festivities, but I got so lost in my own therapeutic sing-every-word, feel-every-emotion that I failed to notice. Needless to say, I was not un-impressed. I’ll admit though, I have an uncanny perversion towards Canadian female songwriters. If this sounds in any way like you, perhaps you should check her out: