It’s hard to believe that I’ve been with the Luminato Festival for seven years in various capacities from volunteer to team leader to photography mentor. Now my second year as one of their staff photographers, it’s been a blast photographing all that I can for them.
Now that the Luminato Festival has come to a close for another year, I’ve had the chance to gather my images and take a look to see just some of the events that I managed to take photos of. While I found myself running around here and there for 10 straight days, it’s really hard to believe that there were still several other events that I was not able to experience—let alone see for myself. The festival is so big and varied that there was sure to be an event for just about anybody’s taste.
The photos shown here are just some of my favourite moments from this year’s Luminato Festival.
My first day had me shooting Isabella Rosselini’s Green Porno, Live on Stage, which was a fabulous mix of intellectual stimulation and lots of laughs. The audience loved her as she “lectured” throughout the evening on animals and their sexuality with short video montages of her playing the role of the many animals to a hamster costume change, and really anything in between. It was held at the historic Winter Gardens Theatre (seen below)—which for a photographer, is always a great place to be in!
The Hub at David Pecaut Square is the “core” of the Luminato Festival. This year with two stages set up for concerts, two large covered tents, and the main area transformed into a cardboard beach compliments of the Cuban collective Los Carpinteros, it was quite the scene that had to be experienced in person. And for those that wondered about the cardboard surviving some rain? From the looks of it, it turned out alright.
The opening weekend had the Taste of the Beach, serving $5 plates of food to hungry Torontonians. With the smell of delicious concoctions like the Bacon Explosion, I couldn’t resist myself from tasting some. Throughout the festival, food from Parts & Labour made everybody happy with their selection of food and drink menu. Gotta love those fries supreme!
Music Mob this year was held on dry grounds under the roof of the Air Canada Centre. It was a grand venue making it a fantastic turnout of local instrument players mingling with members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
What would a summer festival be without some outdoor concerts? With no shortages of those at David Pecaut Square, it kept me busy each day. The Slaight Music series brought together some great talent that had everybody in attendance dancing on their feet. I loved those bands that took the time to interact with the audience, like the Lemon Bucket Orkestra (seen below) who went unplugged and played some songs for those outside the fence!
There were big names on the bill for the main stage, like Buffy Sainte-Marie (shown below) and Ziggy Marley, however, the one I was most anticipating was Bebel Gilberto, as I have always loved her soft, sultry voice that one can easily get lost in.
Too many events within a span of just 10 days means so many pictures. Here are just some of the other ones that I had the fortune of taking this year: Literary picnic at Trinity Bellwoods Park, All the Sex I’ve Ever Had, International Edition, Stones in Her Mouth, Jason Collett’s Basement Revue (which opened my eyes up to Rich Aucoin and his explosive performance) and a bunch of other concerts including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra closing the festival with their open air concert on the final day.
It was all a treat for the senses, and I am very thankful to be able to experience even just a portion of this festival. For more information on the Luminato Festival, check out their site at http://www.luminatofestival.com.
I’ll end this post with one of my favourite images made at the festival this year. While photographing one of the concerts at the Hub, this woman decided to get up on her friend’s shoulders. As she was right in front of me, it was a great opportunity to take some photos with this unique vantage point.
