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| News
Archive for City Of Toronto |
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| EVENT REPORT 10.06.09 12:45 PM |
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Midway Rides, Interactive Exhibits Draw Crowds at Fourth Annual Scotiabank Nuit Blanche
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 | A light installation lit up City Hall
Photo: Emma McIntyre for BizBash |
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Thousands of people took to the streets from sunset Saturday until sunrise Sunday to take part in the fourth annual Scotiabank Nuit Blanche—the City of Toronto’s all-night contemporary art festival. This year’s event saw more audience participation than ever before with interactive art projects offering the chance for the public to get in on the action. “That’s one of the pieces that makes Nuit Blanche so magical—the interactive portion,” said Miki Stricker-Talbot, a programming supervisor with the city.
At the Toronto Coach Terminal, about 400 people seized the opportunity to stand blindfolded inside a steel cage where 20 professional wrestlers participated in Shaun El C. Leonardo’s “Battle Royal.” At Brookfield Place, 750 people volunteered to be suspended in cloth sacks from the building’s rafters at part of the California-based Center for Tactical Magic’s multimedia installation “Witches’ Cradles.”
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RELATED TOPICS
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, Scotiabank, City of Toronto |
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| NEWS 10.01.09 4:42 PM |
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New iPhone, Web Tools to Help People Navigate Scotiabank Nuit Blanche
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Attendees at the fourth annual Scotiabank Nuit Blanche—the City of Toronto's all-night celebration of contemporary art that takes place from 6:55 p.m. Saturday until sunrise on Sunday—will have access to a brand new interactive tool designed to help them navigate the event. Known as the Night Navigator, the tool is an app available to iPhone and BlackBerry users that combines camera and GPS capabilities.
When a participant takes a photograph of the Capturefy icon on a project sign at one of the 130 installations throughout the city, the Night Navigator will then track the individual's location and link them to specific event content. Users will be able to access project details and nearby transit routes, receive directions to nearby projects, post reviews of installations, and plan their itinerary.
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RELATED TOPICS
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, Scotiabank, City of Toronto, POIfriend, Simply Good Technologies |
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| NEWS 06.18.09 1:12 PM |
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City Plans Road Closures, Expanded T.T.C. Service for Nuit Blanche
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 | An installation in Liberty Village
Photo: Gary Beechey for BizBash |
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Large crowds, gridlock, and a lack of free public transit drew criticism from the media following the third annual Scotiabank Nuit Blanche held last October. This year, when the all-night contemporary art party returns for its fourth incarnation on October 3, the event will be more walkable, with installations placed closer together, three key roads closed to traffic, and expanded T.T.C. service. "We are significantly enhancing the experience for the nearly one million people we expect to see in the streets that night," Mayor David Miller announced this week.
The city is planning to create three pedestrian areas with the planned closures of the Bay Street corridor from Gerrard Street to Front Street, McCaul Street from Grange Road to Dundas Street West, and Liberty Street from Dufferin Street to Pirandello Street. The T.T.C. will also expand its all-night service to a larger portion of the subway line. Trains will run all night on the Bloor-Danforth line from Keele to Woodbine and on the Yonge/University/Spadina line from St. Clair West to Eglinton station. Service on the 509 Harbourfront streetcar will also be extended overnight to transport people from Union Station to Liberty Village.
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Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, City of Toronto |
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| NEWS 01.30.09 5:28 PM |
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Close-Act Show Launches WinterCity Festival
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 | The WinterCity preview
Photo: BizBash |
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Organizers of the sixth annual WinterCity Festival—which runs through February 12—offered the media a sneak peek at the festival's opening-night performance during a preview at Nathan Phillips Square Thursday. The renowned theatre company Close-Act rehearsed a scene from the underwater love story Pi-Leau at 6 p.m.—offering local news crews a chance to promote the festival during dinner-hour broadcasts. The Dutch theatre troupe, known for combining theatre, dance acrobatics, and music in large-scale street performances, will perform four free public shows this weekend and next.
"Toronto comes alive with culture every winter as music, theatre, dance, art, and food take centre stage," Mayor David Miller said in a statement. "The WinterCity Festival encourages residents and tourists to get out during the coolest months of the year and experience the city's vibrancy and urban winter wonders."
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RELATED TOPICS
WinterCity Festival, RBC, Close-Act, City of Toronto |
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| Q & A 11.05.08 4:26 PM |
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Carole Boughannam Is Planning the Launch of Toronto's Holiday Festival—and the 2009 Edition of Nuit Blanche
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 | City of Toronto event programming manager Carole Boughannam
Photo: Courtesy of Carole Boughannam |
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Each year, thousands of tourists and Toronto residents descend on Nathan Phillips Square to mark the start of the holiday season and watch the official tree lighting. This year, the 42nd annual Cavalcade of Lights, presented by Scotiabank, returns to the Square from November 29 to December 31. (The official tree, a 68-year-old white spruce that stands 62 feet high, is already in position outside City Hall.) Spearheading the citywide festival—which includes fireworks displays, neighborhood tours, skating parties, and weekly concerts by the likes of Serena Ryder, the Canadian Tenors, and the Dragonettes—is Carole Boughannam, the programming manager for the City of Toronto's special events. Boughannam talked to us about the objective of the event, how the festival has evolved over the years, and what residents and visitors can expect this season.
What is the objective of the Cavalcade of Lights?
Our main goal is to create civic pride in the city and engage residents to come out and celebrate together. The holiday season is a really good time to do that. We also like to enhance the visitor experience. There are a lot of people who are in the city, whether they come from border states or just outside of the GTA. It’s really nice when they come to shop and dine during the holiday time to actually have something that really feels alive in the center of the city. I think it also helps to profile the city, so when people go back out to where they’re from they can really talk about Toronto as being a dynamic place.
The other thing we talk about is motivating travel—we really do want people to be motivated to come to Toronto and come here to shop instead of maybe going to some of the other cities around us. That, in turn, generates an economic impact.
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RELATED TOPICS
City of Toronto, Tourism Toronto, Scotiabank, The Bay, Brian Gluckstein, Nuit Blanche |
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| Q & A 10.09.08 11:14 AM |
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Robin Kay Is Already Eyeing Another New Home for Toronto Fashion Week
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 | FDCC president Robin Kay
Photo: Courtesy of the Fashion Design Council of Canada |
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The Fashion Design Council of Canada (FDCC), which launched L'Oréal Fashion Week eight years ago, is set to present the spring 2009 collections from October 20 through 25 in the tents at Nathan Phillips Square. This season's shows, being held over six days, will be Toronto's biggest presentation yet.
"It’s growing in every way—in awareness and attendance, in designers and sponsorship," said FDCC president Robin Kay, who noted that more than 35 sponsors have signed on to support Fashion Week, during which more than 70 designers will showcase their work in 38 shows on two runways (a first for L'Oréal Fashion Week). We asked Kay how the event has evolved and how she envisions its future.
You have implemented some major changes within the past year. What's your goal?
To be a really great Fashion Week that designers want to come to and show at and sell product. Fashion Week is a calling card for the industry, for designers to sell clothes, for reporters and writers and photographers, and retailers and buyers. It’s a huge, huge industry that was absent in Canada…I came to realize it because I was a designer, and when I stopped and looked up and saw there was nothing happening in this country, I really thought a Fashion Week would be the best attention grabber. It’s been inspirational for the city. It’s wonderful to link art and commerce, to link sponsors with the event and to build our country’s fashion economy. That’s what’s exciting for me.
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RELATED TOPICS
L'Oréal Fashion Week, Fashion Design Council of Canada, City of Toronto, LG Electronics Canada |
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| NEWS 09.23.08 12:45 PM |
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Honda Signs Deal to Sponsor Toronto Indy in 2009
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Honda Canada and Andretti Green Toronto have signed a deal to re-establish the Toronto Indy in 2009. The event, scheduled to take place July 10 to 12 at Exhibition Place, will be called the Honda Indy Toronto. The Indy, first held here in 1986, was dropped from the racing circuit this past summer when the Indy Racing League and the Champ Car World Series reunited. "We are so excited to be involved with bringing this great event back to its roots and a huge loyal fan base in Ontario," said Kevin Savoree, president of Andretti Green Toronto.
The Province of Ontario, the city, and Tourism Toronto are also supporting the event. The province is providing $1 million a year for each of the next three years to Andretti Green, a promotions company owned by seven-time Indy winner Michael Andretti. "Ontario welcomes the Toronto Indy, and with it, hundreds of thousands of racing fans from across the province, the U.S., and overseas," said Tourism Minister Peter Fonseca. "We're proud to partner with Andretti Green Racing to re-establish the Toronto Indy as another exciting summer draw for visitors to our province." —Susan O'Neill
RELATED TOPICS
The Toronto Indy, Honda Canada, Andretti Green Toronto, Province of Ontario, City of Toronto, Tourism Toronto |
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| Q & A 05.22.08 2:26 PM |
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City of Toronto's Jane French Gears Up for Doors Open
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 | Doors Open project manager Jane French
Photo: BizBash |
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Ten years ago, city employee Jane French and a team of colleagues visited Glasgow and Edinburgh to take part in a series of Doors Open Days that provided public access to unique buildings in both cities. When the team returned from the trip, they began to create a Toronto event to showcase buildings of architectural, historical, social, and cultural importance to the city. The first event took place over two days in May 2000, with more than 90 buildings on the roster and more than 70,000 visits.
"Something that we launched to test the audience, potentially as a one-off, by the time the dust had settled we knew this has legs. This has an audience. There’s so much growth potential. And now we’re in year nine," said French, the City of Toronto's Doors Open project manager. On Saturday and Sunday, the doors to 150 buildings across the city will open to the public, many of which are related to this year's theme: Sacred Spaces, Sacred Circles.
Doors Open is happening this weekend. Are there a lot of last-minute details to take care of this week?
Yes, now it’s what I call death in the details. We’ve gone from big, big-picture thinking—what’s our theme? who do we really want to have on board?—and then it shrinks, shrinks, shrinks down into the details ... so it’s all that fine-tuning during the week before the weekend.
For example, we’ve torn our hair out trying to figure out, How do we get the weekend survival kits into the hands of 150 buildings and not spend $10,000 on couriers? So for the last few years we’ve invited everybody down to Fort York on the Tuesday after the long weekend ... that’s the model that works and it actually went better [this year] than ever, except one of the boxes of badges got left behind here [at the office]. We thought we’d run out ... then we came back and we found 1,600 badges on the floor. So we’re going to send a few courier packages today. What can you do?
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RELATED TOPICS
City of Toronto, Toronto Star, CBC |
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| NEWS 03.26.08 1:12 PM |
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Green Electricity to Power Earth Hour Concert
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Organizers of Saturday's Earth Hour concert in Nathan Phillips Square are taking steps to ensure that the event is as carbon-neutral as possible. Bullfrog Power will supply renewable energy for Nelly Furtado's free acoustic show as Toronto joins 20 major cities around the world—including Chicago, Dublin, San Francisco, and Sydney—in encouraging businesses and residents to turn off their lights between 8 and 9 p.m. "I'm incredibly pleased that we are able to add some entertainment star power to our powered-down night under the stars," Toronto mayor David Miller said in a statement announcing Furtado's performance.
More than 50,000 people and 1,000 businesses in cities across the country have pledged to switch off their lights at www.earthhour.org. Toronto Hydro will measure the impact on the city's electricity grid during the event, which is sponsored by WWF Canada, the City of Toronto, The Toronto Star, and Virgin Mobile. —Susan O'Neill
RELATED TOPICS
W.W.F. Canada, City of Toronto, The Toronto Star, Virgin Mobile, Nelly Furtado, Bullfrog Power |
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