So long. Farewell. Auf wiedersehen, adieu.

So, after ten days and about a million plays, films, art installations, concerts and performances, it’s all over. Luminato has come to an end.

Until next year.

Luminato’s best and brightest are already fervently working away in the labs, working on a new festival for next year. We can’t say just yet who’ll be here for the show, but we can guarantee that it’ll be a blast.

We’ll see you next year. Until then, don’t stop being creative.

Luminato: The Last Day

Only one day left. What to do, what to do?

We at the Luminato Blog are going to spend our last day at Luminato hitting the binary system of Carnivalissima and the Distillery. In case we haven’t mentioned it ad nauseum, there’s a bus and a boat that go between the two, so there’s no excuse for not hitting both.

At Carnivalissima yesterday, the rhythm was inescapable. From the world marketplace to the main stage to the calypso tent, even the most staid and conservative festival-goers couldn’t keep their hips from swaying just a little bit.

Kofi Hadjor wasn’t even trying to keep from dancing. He helped to organize a Muhtadi-like drumming festival on the Harbourfront grass, with drummers in the First Nations, Brazilian and African traditions. Djembes littered the ground after the performance, spent.

“The politicians can erect borders, but we the people can take them down,” he said, adding that music is the best way for the varied international communities of Toronto to come together.

Later in the evening came the parade, led by the fire dancers and more drummers, and followed by men on stilts, and giant puppets, and children bearing hanging lanterns. One woman sat on the boardwalk with her dog.

“We have to be careful,” she said. “He’s afraid of the Stilt Men.” (Fortunately, we at the Luminato Blog are dog lovers, and welcomed this pooch’s protection-seeking nuzzling.)

Carnivalissima’s not over, folks, and neither is Luminato at the Distillery. Check it out:

Family Programming at the Harbourfront lasts all day today. Look for the kids with lanterns, or the face-painters, or the giant wheeled contraption near Queen’s Quay, covered in cowbells and cymbals and other percussive ephemera. You’ll hear it before you see it.

Michael Montano HD will be sending love and backbeats from the Caribbean out to the crowd, starting at 4 p.m. at the Harbourfront.

The Marilyn Brewer Community Space will be home to Carnival: The Spirit and Soul, an exhibit on theatrical narrative and masking.

The Fermenting Cellar in the Distillery District will feature percussion workshops and jazz all day, beginning at 12:30 p.m.

More Art of Jazz All Stars will appear on the Pure Spirits Stage at the Distillery beginning at noon.

The Distillery’s Lula Lubre Stage will, as it has all week, feature Afro-Cuban jams all day beginning at noon. (Note from the Luminato Bloggers: This stage rocks.)

PODCAST: Floating Artworks in TD Centre

Our Floating Artworks podcast series concludes with a tour of the TD Centre installations, led by assistant curator Rob Vanderberg.

Here, Vanderberg describes hanging works by Abraham Cruzvillegas and Dan Steinhilber, as well as an interactive light sculpture by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer.

More Floating Artworks have appeared this weekend, so be sure to check them out. William Forsythe’s Scattered Crowd, featuring a floating landscape full of balloons, will also be in the TD Centre. And be sure to look for Jenny Holzer’s building projections all over town — including at the Drake Hotel, the MaRS Discovery District and the Parliament Street Silos (where you can catch L’Art Boat and see L’Art Village.).

Check out our podcast here.

Let me stand next to your fire

If you’re a pyrophobe, tonight might be the night to face your fear.

Carnivalissima — Harbourfront Centre’s multicultural grande fete — will have enough fire on hand to make every marshmallow in Toronto run screaming into the night.

It’s called FireWalk: Fire dancers. Fire eaters. Giant puppets. And, according the the Luminato publicity sheet, “the glimmering lights of a thousand lanterns.”

Bring some SPF 30. The event begins as soon as Mr. Sun goes below the horizon.

Filming Vida!

It wasn’t enough for Veronica Tennant to see the production of Vida! A Celebration of Life. It wasn’t even enough for her to become closely familiar with Danza Cuba, the dance troupe that put on the performance, or Lizt Alfonso, the show’s choreographer and composer.

No — she wanted to make a movie.

“I could tell right away that this was a force,” Tennant said in a phone interview. “I could tell right away that I wanted to chronicle this.”

Tennant retired from her career as a prima ballerina with the National Ballet of Canada 11 years ago and has been (among other things) producing televised dance specials since then. It was when she saw Danza Cuba perform in Havana that she knew this film (its working title is Direct from Havana: Vida!) would be her next project.

Participants at Luminato’s opening gala could see Tennant’s filmmakers darting around the VIP area, cameras and sound gear in hand, to cover every moment of the dancers’ time at the concert. They’ve shot in Cuba already; while they’re still months away from a final cut, Tennant suspects Danza Cuba’s Luminato performance may be the climax of the film.

In the fashion of the performance itself, she envisions the film as a wide portrait of Cuba through the eyes of its artists.

“I find it most fascinating to experience all the social interaction from the point of view of the art, and from the heart of the artists,” she said.

You can see Vida! A Celebration of Life at 2 p.m. or 8 p.m. today, or at 5 p.m. tomorrow, at the Royal Alexandra Theatre.

Last chances

We at the Luminato Blog are starting to get a little sad. We know that the festival has fewer than 48 hours left to it, and we’re starting to get that “so long, farewell” song from The Sound of Music stuck in our heads.

But we don’t despair. We know there’s still plenty to do. But unlike Pulse Front and Speigeltent’ntavern, many of the Luminato shows are coming to an end this weekend.

Here’s a rundown of the ticketed shows it’s your last chance to see:

An Evening With Glenn Gould. Saturday at noon and 5:30 p.m.; Sunday at 1:30 p.m.

Vida! A Celebration of Life. Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 5 p.m.

Shen Wei Dance Arts. Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

The Walker Project: Better Living. Saturday at 4 p.m.; Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

The Walker Project: Escape from Happiness. Saturday at 8:30 p.m.

The Walker Project: Tough! Sunday at 1 p.m.

Back Home. Saturday at 7:15 p.m.; Sunday at 7:15 p.m.

Risk Everything. Saturday at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday at 4 p.m.

Constantinople. Saturday at 8 p.m.

The Passion of Winnie. Saturday at 8 p.m.

The Walker Project: Escape from Happiness. Saturday at 8:30 p.m.

The Walker Project: Tough! Sunday at 1 p.m.

That funky Luminato Style

You know you look good. Everyone knows you look good. Look at you. You sly dog.

But you know what? You could look better. You could be wearing cool Luminato gear.

Shirts are $28. Baseball caps are $25. Wristbands — oh man would you look uber-hip in a wristband — are a mere five bucks.

Stop into any Roots store, or Bergo Designs in the Distillery District, to stock up.

Music at Carnivalissima

In our ongoing quest to overbook your weekend, the Luminato Blog presents the schedule for the Harbourfront Centre’s Toronto Star Stage at Carnivalissima this weekend:

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band is one of the truly quintessential acts of our times. They’ve been the crown jewel of New Orleans music for 30 years and have thrilled audiences all over the world. (June 8, 9:30 p.m.)

COBA (Collective of Black Artists) performs Danse Belé a theatrical representation of the history of Caribbean Indigenous Folk dances from Trinidad and Tobago. They weave dance, spoken word, music, drumming, chants and period costumes to transport the audience through the life and times of plantation slaves. (June 9, 6:30 p.m.)

Olodum is a world-renowned cultural group of carnival ambassadors based in Bahia, Brazil. They have been performing since 1979 and are widely credited with developing the music style known as samba-reggae and for their active participation in Carnival each year. (June 9, 9:30 p.m.)

Machel Montano HD is the undisputed Soca King of Trinidad and Tobago who is edging his name among the elite in the music industry. Machel and his band HD have been the premier Soca band in the Caribbean for more than a decade and have established themselves as the leading draw at major events in New York City, Miami, Toronto, London and throughout the Caribbean. (June 10, 4:00 p.m.)

Carnivalissima: For All Ages

So, here’s what we imagine the situation to be: You’ve got kids. You want to have a good time at Luminato absorbing some art and culture, but the kids tend to get squirmy when you take them to see opera or modern dance recitals. You’d take them to Speigeltent’ntavern, but you know that nobody ever won Parent of the Year for taking their kids to a burlesque show. Where’s a family to go?

We at the Luminato Blog feel your pain, and we’ve got an easy answer: Carnivalissima. It’s a celebration of the diversity and creativity of Toronto’s vastly multicultural population, featuring concerts, art, film, fashion, dance, jazz, international crafts and cuisine… we’re getting out of breath just listing it all.

Here’s the full schedule:

Masquerade Ball: June 8, 8 p.m., Carnivalissima Tent
The Masquerade Ball will start with a call to dance by Maracatu Nunca Antes and continue with music by Jay Douglas and the All Stars and dance lessons by Miko Sobreira and Company. Performances in the Venetian tradition will occur featuring commedia del’arte by MetaPhysical Theatre. Amazing fashion competitions and two fashion shows created by Len D. Henry of Fashcam Productions take place.

Carnival: The Spirit and the Soul: All Weekend, Marilyn Brewer Community Space
An exciting new art exhibition curated by Theodoro Dragoneri will examine tradition based on more contemporary aspects of the uses of theatrical narrative and masking. This three-part exhibition will include masks, photography and mixed media from Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas.

FireWalk: June 9, after dusk, Congo Square
When day turns to night, Carnivalissima ignites the Toronto waterfront with spectacles of swirling fire dancers, daring fire-eaters, majestic stilt performers, mythical giant puppets, and the glimmering lights of a thousand lanterns! Join in a dance procession of shadow and light and follow the sound of Samba, Steel Pan and Tassa Drums through Harbourfront Centre’s transformed boardwalk and streets.

Family Programming: June 9 & 10, Topsy Turvy Territory and Kid’s Hands-On Tent
A two-day carnival arts and crafts extravaganza will take place by the waterfront. Children of all ages, family and friends are invited to create dazzling carnival masks and costumes, bamboo and paper lanterns, and musical instruments from all over the world. Jump up and dance along to the beat of live steel-pan orchestras, chutney Soca, African drums, stilt-dancers, and hoop-dancers all performed by professional youth artists. Special dance workshops, mask theatre performances, aerial dance performances, and the aroma of live food demonstrations from the master chefs of Pier 4 Restaurant and Radisson Hotel will ignite the carnival spirit in kids and adults alike.

Carnivalissima happens entirely at the Harbourfront Centre.

EXTENDED: Speigeltent and Pulse Front

Photo by Tracy-Byers Reid

We at the Luminato Blog don’t like to eat our words. But we do like the opportunity to watch burlesque vaudevillians ply their trade for a little longer. So for us, it’s a draw. For you, gentle reader, it’s great news.

Yesterday we told you that Speigeltent’ntavern, Toronto’s premier destination for acrobatics, comedy and dancing in an early-Twentieth-Century milieu, would only run for three more days.

Thankfully, we were wrong: Speigeltent’ntavern has been extended all the way up to the end of June.

Shows will take place every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night at 8 p.m., and every Sunday night at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $25 and can be purchased at the Harbourfront Centre box office.

Also in Toronto for an extended engagement is Pulse Front: Relational Architecture 12, the best place in town to go when you’re in the mood to see powerful search lights blink in time to your own heartbeat. Pulse Front turns on at dusk, and will be at the Harbourfront until June 17.