A crowd of 1,500 invited guests gathered at the Royal Ontario Museum Friday for a cocktail party to launch the second annual Luminato Festival of Arts and Creativity. In addition to highlighting several aspects of the festival's 2008 programming—including a performance of Black Watch (a drama about Scottish soldiers in Iraq) at the Varsity Arena—the event included a party within a party in the form of a reception for a select group of V.I.P.s sponsored by Giorgio Armani. “Our presenting partner is L’Oréal, and Giorgio Armani is one of their key brands. It seemed like a perfect complement for our opening-night party,” said Luminato's vice president of development, Trish McGrath, who planned the event in conjunction with Barbara Hershenhorn of Party Barbara Co.
Organizers selected a new venue for the 2008 kickoff (the opening-night party for the inaugural event took place at BCE Place) to accommodate the high number of guests, which included sponsors, media, business leaders, and government officials. “Certainly the ROM is a beautiful venue, and we knew that we needed a very large space that could be used with program surprises throughout the party,” McGrath said. “In addition, we have a lot of programming up in that area [of the city during the festival], so it just seemed like a natural fit.”
Westbury National Show Systems washed the ROM in blue and lit up the exterior of the building with the Luminato iris logo from a location on the north side of Bloor Street. “We couldn’t get the road closed until 6:30 p.m.," Hershenhorn said. "They had to load in all the generators and the scaffolding in three hours. They had a lot of work to do, and they did an amazing job." Westbury also lit the interior of the venue and projected images of performances onto the angled ceiling inside the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal where event management company Cinco coordinated the V.I.P. lounge on behalf of Armani.
Staff at the museum’s Bloor Street entrance secured black Armani ribbon bracelets around the wrists of guests attending the V.I.P. reception, described as "a case of party politics" that "provided proof that the two-party system doesn't always work smoothly" in Monday’s Toronto Star. V.I.P. guests entered the venue along the red carpet outside the Crystal, while the guests invited at large by Luminato entered through the rotunda on the Queen’s Park side of the building. “We wanted it to feel, no matter what direction you approached from, that there was a real sense of occasion,” McGrath said of the decision to create two entrances to the event. “Basically, on all sides there is a sense of something happening here,” she said.
The V.I.P. space, dressed in black furnishings, featured curved black walls that separated various installations and provided guests with a level of privacy while they had their makeup touched up or sampled a fragrance. Models dressed in Armani fashions wandered throughout the room during the evening. “We were very happy to do such an event for Giorgio Armani. We were very satisfied. It is the most high-end event we do in the Toronto market,” Jehanne Simon, marketing manager for Giorgio Armani cosmetics and fragrances, said in an interview from the company’s Paris offices Monday. Simon, who attended the event, said the opening-night party was a natural fit for the brand because the arts are of great importance to Armani (who also recently served as the honourary chair for the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute gala in New York). “He is very much involved in art, and artwork is very much important to him,” Simon said.
Back in the main room, guests sampled hors d'oeuvres at three food stations, courtesy of A La Carte Kitchen, which included a selection of skewers, chilled soups, and South Asian food—selected to highlight the festival’s South Asian programming. “Last year we didn’t lean as much on the programming, but this year it just seemed to work,” Hershenhorn said. Entertainers included Bollywood dancers, a tabla player, East Coast musicians, and even pipes and drums, courtesy of the 48th Highlanders Pipe Band, which marched guests along Bloor Street from the Black Watch performance at the Varsity, held prior to the party.
Custom light towers bearing the Luminato logo flanked either side of the stage at the west end of the Currelly Gallery, where performers like Shakura S’Aida with Blues Band entertained guests. “The entertainment is obviously based on the whole concept of Luminato, which is a collaboration of the arts,” Hershenhorn said. “All the talent that has been brought to the table has been put together for this event.”
Organizers selected a new venue for the 2008 kickoff (the opening-night party for the inaugural event took place at BCE Place) to accommodate the high number of guests, which included sponsors, media, business leaders, and government officials. “Certainly the ROM is a beautiful venue, and we knew that we needed a very large space that could be used with program surprises throughout the party,” McGrath said. “In addition, we have a lot of programming up in that area [of the city during the festival], so it just seemed like a natural fit.”
Westbury National Show Systems washed the ROM in blue and lit up the exterior of the building with the Luminato iris logo from a location on the north side of Bloor Street. “We couldn’t get the road closed until 6:30 p.m.," Hershenhorn said. "They had to load in all the generators and the scaffolding in three hours. They had a lot of work to do, and they did an amazing job." Westbury also lit the interior of the venue and projected images of performances onto the angled ceiling inside the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal where event management company Cinco coordinated the V.I.P. lounge on behalf of Armani.
Staff at the museum’s Bloor Street entrance secured black Armani ribbon bracelets around the wrists of guests attending the V.I.P. reception, described as "a case of party politics" that "provided proof that the two-party system doesn't always work smoothly" in Monday’s Toronto Star. V.I.P. guests entered the venue along the red carpet outside the Crystal, while the guests invited at large by Luminato entered through the rotunda on the Queen’s Park side of the building. “We wanted it to feel, no matter what direction you approached from, that there was a real sense of occasion,” McGrath said of the decision to create two entrances to the event. “Basically, on all sides there is a sense of something happening here,” she said.
The V.I.P. space, dressed in black furnishings, featured curved black walls that separated various installations and provided guests with a level of privacy while they had their makeup touched up or sampled a fragrance. Models dressed in Armani fashions wandered throughout the room during the evening. “We were very happy to do such an event for Giorgio Armani. We were very satisfied. It is the most high-end event we do in the Toronto market,” Jehanne Simon, marketing manager for Giorgio Armani cosmetics and fragrances, said in an interview from the company’s Paris offices Monday. Simon, who attended the event, said the opening-night party was a natural fit for the brand because the arts are of great importance to Armani (who also recently served as the honourary chair for the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute gala in New York). “He is very much involved in art, and artwork is very much important to him,” Simon said.
Back in the main room, guests sampled hors d'oeuvres at three food stations, courtesy of A La Carte Kitchen, which included a selection of skewers, chilled soups, and South Asian food—selected to highlight the festival’s South Asian programming. “Last year we didn’t lean as much on the programming, but this year it just seemed to work,” Hershenhorn said. Entertainers included Bollywood dancers, a tabla player, East Coast musicians, and even pipes and drums, courtesy of the 48th Highlanders Pipe Band, which marched guests along Bloor Street from the Black Watch performance at the Varsity, held prior to the party.
Custom light towers bearing the Luminato logo flanked either side of the stage at the west end of the Currelly Gallery, where performers like Shakura S’Aida with Blues Band entertained guests. “The entertainment is obviously based on the whole concept of Luminato, which is a collaboration of the arts,” Hershenhorn said. “All the talent that has been brought to the table has been put together for this event.”
One of three food stations, courtesy of A La Carte Kitchens, served a selection of skewers including beef tikka, tandoori prawns, and minced lamb.
Photo: Gary Beechey for BizBash
Chilled soup shooters included carrot and mango, tomato and saffron, roasted red beet and pomegranate, and green pea and fennel.
Photo: Gary Beechey for BizBash
Guests sampled a selection of vegetarian pakoras and samosas at a food station at the Currelly Gallery entrance to the museum's southeast atrium.
Photo: Gary Beechey for BizBash
Makeup artists provided Giorgio Armani lip touch-ups at the V.I.P. reception in the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal.
Photo: Gary Beechey for BizBash
A red carpet outside the Bloor Street entrance led V.I.P. guests into a separate cocktail reception.
Photo: Gary Beechey for BizBash
Westbury National Show Systems projected images of stars and Luminato's iris logo onto the exterior of the ROM.
Photo: Gary Beechey for BizBash
The angled ceiling of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal served as a projection surface for Luminato performances throughout the evening.
Photo: Gary Beechey for BizBash
Giorgio Armani cosmetics posters adorned the black curved walls installed in the V.I.P. reception space.
Photo: Gary Beechey for BizBash
Event producer Barbara Hershenhorn kept decor to a minimum in the Currelly Gallery, choosing to accent the space with lighting instead.
Photo: Gary Beechey for BizBash
The Luminato logo decorated custom light boxes—courtesy of Party Barbara Co.—that flanked either side of the stage.
Photo: Gary Beechey for BizBash
