Photo: Oysters on Queens Quay

A photo from yesterday's 1000 Tastes of Toronto, Rodney Oyster's crew doing their hard work. Wow, they are fast! Today, the food is being served again starting at noon. Read our latest post for our mini reviews.

Queens Quay, get ready for the hordes. Or, how to survive Luminato weekend on the waterfront

So, we expect hordes of folks to come out to Queens Quay (Toronto waterfront) for the Luminato Cirque de Soleil shows this weekend. See our previous posts for info about the three days of shows.

The weather forecast? Perfect.

Here's a little survival guide for QQ residents and also for Torontonians and out of towners coming into our neighbourhood

Car or no car?: Okay, they're closing down Queens Quay's eastbound lanes between Spadina and Lower Simcoe between Saturday morning and Monday morning, so driving is going to be nightmarish.

Residents: Leave your car at home. Seriously, you really need to drive back and forth? And if you do drive, be prepared for annoying commuting. In fact, maybe you should get errands done on Friday night and then park that thing.

Everyone else: We have parking lots south of Rogers Centre or north of the Harbourfront Centre but we've seen this neighbourhood on Canada Day weekend. Just driving out of here's going to be rough. So sure, pick a spot but it'll probably fill up quickly and getting out of here will be annoying. Best bet is to park your car within transit or walking distance and stroll on down here.

Streetcar access: Union Station is always a zoo and it'll probably be one as well on the weekend. We have two lines (510 and 509) and although they increase service, expect long lines. Taking down from Spadina may be an idea (510). Better yet, if you go into Union, take a nice stroll down Bay Street.

Residents, you think we have it fun on weekday mornings, you might as well take a stroll.

Boat access: Yes, that's right, there will be ferries between the Music Garden and the Harbourfront Centre.

Food: You're in luck. The President's Choice 1000 Tastes of Toronto is on (see post) so there will be plenty of grub! It'll actually take place on the street. See all our previous Luminato posts for the map.

It looks like there will be a mobile Pizza Pizza at the HTO Park West site between the main venue and the Music Garden. There will also be three beer gardens, at the two HTO Parks and also at the Harbourfront Centre.

Also, there are the usual shops like the restaurants at Queens Quay Terminal (Pearl, Watermark Bar), the shops on the north side of Queens Quay (Subway, Pizza Pizza, Grill 4 U Express, Quiznos, sushi, Swiss Chalet) and a few close to HTO Park.

Shoppers (near Spadina), Rabba (near Rees) and Sobeys (at Queens Quay Terminal) are all open and have all groceries.

Residents, stock up on groceries, go to your balconys (if you have them) and watch the fray from above, particularly if you have a rooftop BBQ.

Washrooms: Woah, this will be interesting. Queens Quay Terminal has a few, the best is probably near the Pearl restaurant on the second floor. Other than that, good luck at the Starbucks. Don't know yet if portapottys will be set up.

Where to watch: We'd say start at the Music Garden and walk east toward the Harbourfront then come back to the Music Garden where it's the quieter part of the neighbourhood. Plus, you can catch a TTC streetcar from Bathurst if you want to avoid crowds. There's good grass seating at the HTO Park East but we suspect the main Harbourfront area will be a zoo.

Residents, walk your hood, go home, watch from above and repeat. Have fun, lets enjoy this weekend when we're the centre of attention.

Luminato Cirque de Soleil official brochure

Here's even more information on the Luminato weekend (yes, you're gonna get sick of all these posts, but hey, why not).

It includes a map of all the venues, the schedule and the ferry (ferry!) between Harbourfront Centre and the Music Garden. Pretty cool.

Click on the images for larger, more readable images.

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

President's Choice "1000 Tastes of Toronto" looks like will be a sleeper hit

Update: TasteTO has a schedule for this weekend along with a list of establishments.

There has been lots of talk about street food this year, with all those non-hotdog carts coming out on Victoria Day weekend. Part of the weekend Luminato festivities on Queens Quay and the Toronto waterfront is the President's Choice "1000 Tastes of Toronto".

We have to admit that when we saw President's Choice, we thought, well, about frozen food and package product. Yes, we have to admit that does not sound too appetizing.

That was until we spotted this post on Karmacake. If this is the true list, then our mouths are watering WE ARE READY TO EAT!

We are talking some of QQLs favourite restaurants: Amuse Bouche (King and Bathurst area, romantic setting), Edo (wicked Japanese) Globe Bistro (Canadian-themed cuisine on the Danforth), Seven Numbers (Italian, also on Danforth), Southern Accent (yummy Southern comfort food).

Not enough, how about Susur Lee (Lee and Madeline). How about 360 Restaurant or Auberge Du Pommier or Dhaba.

Even Lai Wah Heen, high high end Chinese, will be setting up shop, according to this list. And how can you not be near water and have something from Rodney's Oyster House.

The foodie vibe in our strip is going to get a whole lot more interesting this weekend.

The full list here

Luminato's Cirque setup at the Music Garden

With our perfect vantage point of the Music Garden, we went up to our rooftop to snap these pictures of the dome building in progress as the Cirque de Soleil set up at the Music Garden for Luminato.

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.

Luminato's Cirque crew setting up at Music Garden

We were walking by the Music Garden last night and noticed that the Cirque de Soleil setup crews were installing a few venues. We'll grab pictures tomorrow, but so far, we see a mini pirate looking ship towards the Canada Malting Plant building, and a big dome on the park's eastern edge, right after the steps. So we're now thinking arrrh, pirates! and some sort of aerobatics or suspended act.

The circus is here (sorta)! Cirque du Soleil setting up shop on Queens Quay

(One of the sites of the Cirque event, with extra trailers and towers visible. Click here for larger image)

Oh yes, don't you know it's June, given these cooler days we've been having lately? Well, Toronto, that city of the summer, is set to transport thousands to our waterfront in a few weeks with the launch of Luminato starting this weekend.

Of course, we've written about one of the big closing events for the Luminato, the Cirque de Soleil events on the weekend of the 13th to 16th. We'll write about road closures later, but for today, you may have noticed the trucks rolling into the neighbourhood.

Below, you can see the Cirque trailer in the distance (blue with gold lettering)



And an idea of how much electricity this event will need to power it.



And one of the tower-like platforms.



That's right, the circus has arrived and they're already starting to set up at HTO Park. They've set up fences around the fire stations and as we write this Tuesday night, they've already put up five towers, all about three-storeys high. We're sure this will make what ever performances they'll be giving visible the anticipated crowds who'll converge on the western part of Queens Quay (for once) and those of us with balconey views.

Our last post cited a Globe story "departure from the tightly controlled big-top and Las Vegas spectacles it's known for - representing a throwback of sorts to the company's street-performer roots, albeit one shaped by the massive creative resources Cirque now has at its disposal."

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.