Cirque de Soleil's Luminato Show: The details and a map

Thanks to some reports out there we have a little more information on this weekend's huge Cirque the Soleil show on Queens Quay. All we can say for the neighbourhood is BRACE YOURSELVES. You're about to see crowds you never see on the 'western' edge of Queens Quay.


View Luminato's Cirque de Soleil show on Queens Quay Toronto waterfront in a larger map

THE THEME
The show has been described as an improvisation. It's also said to be unique, not a rehashing of past Cirque shows. From reports we've read, there will be some interaction between the performers. The theme is going to be rural setting versus the urban setting, and the coming together of the two. There will be two tribes, the "Ban" and the "Na." To pull this off, there will be three venues where they will be based out of and eventually mingle. (See Luminato site for more details on the weekend. See our past Luminato posts)

THE TIMING: WHEN IT'LL HAPPEN
Friday: The weekend kicks off at 7 p.m. when the communities enter their habitats. It'll go until about 9 p.m.

Saturday: The events are to kick off at 1:30 until 8 p.m. and there will be "interactions" every half hour. What this tells us is there will be different types of performances that will let anyone who arrives in the early afternoon to the evening an understanding of the theme.

Here's what the Star says about Saturday

Saturday is a day of adjustment, starting in the afternoon, with the two groups venturing cautiously outside of their habitations to the world of Queens Quay. The street itself has been colourfully transformed, and during the weekend, the eastbound lanes will be pedestrian-only.

Sunday: 1:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Looks like there will be much the same type of performances happening through the day, the two groups will converge on the HTO Park (near the fire house) for the finale.

9 p.m. to 11 p.m.: Don't know about the ending but safe to say that the big stage and speakers mean that there'll be a big cirque show. We've seen guys suspended on wires at the main stage and it looks like all 60 performers will converge on this. We've heard some of the soundcheck music (very pop rock but in a good way).

THE SITES
There will be three sites for the weekend Cirque performers. The Harbourfront Centre rink, the HTO Park and the Music Garden

Harbourfront Centre: The "na" or nature tribe will be based in the Harbourfront Centre area, focused on what in the winter is the Natrel Rink. Funny it's nature as the site is surrounded by our concrete jungle. They've put up a series of stages and torches which has since been filled with water. So expect FIRE and WATER there. The rink isn't deep enough for swimming but we expect some pretty good things to happen there. Here are some pictures we snapped from the venue a few days ago.



And a picture from HarbourfrontTO



Music Garden: This will be the urban or "Ban" (Get it, urBAN). There is a ship at the western part of the park but the big venue is the eastern side of the park where there are two domes set up. So we expect, as you would, some aerial stuff going on there.



HTO Park: This is will the main concert will be where the two tribes will intermingle (will they do it before Sunday at 9 p.m.?) but they've a lot of huge speaker towers, a big stage which we've seen suspend performers. It'll be loud and you'll hear it block away so we guess they're expecting Queens Quay to be packed.



Other venues: Queens Quay itself, we're sure, will be used as the two tribes converge on each other so expect to come across Cirque performers. Also, the Simcoe Wavedeck opens Friday and there will be Cirque performers there so maybe they'll integrate it and the Spadina Wavedeck into the performance. On Queens Quay, there will be family activity area and the food festival will be RIGHT ON THE STREET all the way from Spadina down east. This will be a huge food festival.

Here's a handy map with the three venues

Wow, it's going to be a LOUD weekend (with road closures) on Queens Quay for Luminato's Cirque show

Overhead view of HTO Park and one of the sites for this weekend's Luminato Cirque de Soleil.

Yep, we're about 400 metres away from HTO Park yet right now they're doing a nice little soundcheck of the speaker system for this weekend's Luminato Cirque de Soleil show. With our balcony door open, the music is drowning out the traffic, the Gardiner, the wind.

Got some cool guitar licks happening.

On another note, there is going to be a flood of people coming down to Queens Quay. Adam Vaughan sent out a notice with his latest newsletter. The gist: the south lanes will be closed and probably partly open to pedestrian traffic!

Past experience has shown that this will be an extremely popular destination for weekend visitors. No outdoor performances are scheduled to go past 11 pm and concert sound levels will be kept within city-approved site limits. To enhance the weekend experience there will be some road closures in effect to accommodate planned activities and pedestrian traffic:

Queens Quay W (eastbound lanes): from Lower Spadina Ave to Lower Simcoe St:
Saturday June 13, 6am to Monday, June 15, 3am

Luminato organizers will manage these road closures to ensure as little disruption as
possible. Access to 401 Queen’s Quay West will be managed by a Paid Duty Police
Officer.

Photo: Signage shadows

Here at Queens Quay Life, gonna take a few days off from blogging, but we've got lots of ideas. Actually, maybe we'll have one up on holiday Monday, but for now, here's a photo of the HTO sign or rather its shadow.



Happy Victoria Day

Toronto Life's 50 Reasons To Love Toronto Now (and 5 reasons to love the waterfront)

In the June issue of Toronto Life, it lists 50 reasons why they love Toronto right now.

Lists are, well, arbitrary. We can imagine the staff of Toronto Life gathering at a story meeting thinking up ideas. Maybe they have a map of Toronto so they try to cover the city. Who knows.

Anyways, from our boring but safe banks (No. 1) to the number of same-sex couples (No. 4) to our enviro-mayor (No. 35) they hit just enough topics to seem to cover the city.

So what about the waterfront community and Queens Quay? The Waterfront Revitalization comes in at No 34, with the magazine citing the HTO Park. Number 43 is that everyone bikes and everyone knows that they have to bike through the waterfront to get from east or west to downtown. And they point to Porter (No. 22) as a civilizated way to travel "we're ready to swap our protest for praise". Finally, at No. 13, they point out to the ethnic food (injera) at nearby Roundhouse Park and the CN Tower's LEDs make it cool (No. 12).

We have to say we agree that there are cool aspects to the waterfront.

Wind storm hits Toronto, goodbye sunny day on Queens Quay

Okay, since we showed you nice pictures of HTO Park a few hours ago on this glorious (er, windy) Saturday afternoon, here are some pictures we took as that massive wind storm blew past Toronto downtown. We were a little worried for some sailboats we saw drifting out there but the trusty fire rescue boats were out there.

From Environment Canada

AT 4:50 PM EDT RADAR SHOWS A LINE OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS APPROACHING WESTERN END OF LAKE ONTARIO. THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO REACH TORONTO BY 5;30 PM. WIND GUSTS TO 100 KM/H LARGE HAIL AND HEAVY DOWNPOURS ARE EXPECTED

Photo: Happy spring Queens Quay

Yes, we were going to spend a few hours this fine afternoon blogging for QQLife but hey, neighbourhood blogging can be a drag on beautiful days. So today's entry, images from HTO Park this afternoon. Yes, there are those of you who are already out there in your summer swimwear tanning.

Get outside, enjoy our neighbourhood, folks.

The circus is coming! Cirque de Soleil to close out Luminato on the waterfront

Very cool news. The very successful Luminato (you may remember the light show at Harbourfront Centre last year), is again making its mark on Queens Quay area. It's going to be quite the show. And it's free. Internationally known and Canadian-born circus, Cirque de Soleil, is holding a major event to close out the June festival. (See details)

For our closing weekend, Canada’s international entertainment company Cirque du Soleil® presents a special event created especially for Luminato. This event is an inquiry into the very essence of human civilization.

Beginning Friday night, two “communities” will form on the Toronto waterfront: one representing the natural world in which we have our instinctual roots and the urban community, the world we have constructed around ourselves. They’ll make their homes at opposite ends of the site, each in an environment antithetical to their respective world-view.

What will happen as the weekend unfolds and the two communities encounter and interact with each other? You’ll have to join in the festivities to find out – but expect to be amazed. Be sure to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience Luminato and Cirque du Soleil as never before!

The National Post says it'll take place at the "Harbourfront Centre, the Toronto Music Garden, and HtO Park, Cirque du Soleil's waterfront visit is experiential with encounters happening"

We like the fact that HTO Park and the Music Garden will be part of this project, it takes it out of the central harbourfront and into the western part of the Queens Quay. Plus, Music Garden has interesting design that they could take advantage of.

Luminato runs from June 5 to June 14th, and this event is FREE and runs from the 12th to 14th.

That the smell of molasses? No, it's Sugar Beach

As mentioned in last week's post on the East Bayside project, we promised to shed a little more light on the two public spaces to be formed on the shore of Queens Quay East. Above is a rendering from the Waterfront Toronto site of Sugar Beach.

More pictures of the project over at the designer for the park. You can see them here:


This firm also designed the now quasi infamous HTO park, with the sand and yellow umbrellas. A picture QQL snapped a few weeks ago in the middle of winter:



Here's more about the Sugar Beach Park, from the Waterfront Toronto site:

The 1 hectare Sugar Beach park located at the foot of Jarvis Street across the slip from the Redpath Sugar factory is slated for completion in 2010. Designed by Claude Cormier Architectes Paysagistes of Montreal, Sugar Beach is the second urban beach along Toronto’s waterfront and is inspired by the successful HtO urban beach park & Toronto’s Cumberland park. The design is composed of three spaces; an urban beach with brightly coloured umbrellas, a water’s edge promenade and thoroughfare, and a muti-functional event plaza space. The plaza space will also accommodate the public music events Corus Entertainment is expected to host.

Speaking of Sugar plant, there was a story in the Toronto Star recently about worries the Redpath plan would be a bother to residents of new condos that will be built on Queens Quay East. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Quoted in the Star.

"Our concern is, while we can make the plant reasonably quiet, ships are not quiet," says Jonathan Bamberger, president of Redpath Sugar, a 50-year-old facility at the foot of Yonge St., smack in the heart of a rapidly developing section of Toronto's waterfront.

"When the ship comes in it might turn around, it might arrive at 2 in the morning. The horn blows, the cranes move," he says, adding, "It's not good to have condominiums right next to something that is a 24-hour operation outside."

Noise complaints seem to be a common complaint of the waterfront community.