The World-Class Toronto Summer Guide: 14 things that are worth sticking around for
The World-Class Toronto Summer Guide: 14 things that are worth sticking around for
What’s one of the best things to do in Toronto this summer? If you can, get out of Toronto. See the world. Find another city’s heat and construction and transit problems to keep you occupied—preferably a city that’s got a globally recognized art gallery or museum or horse race or something. Of course, if you find yourself stuck in the city all season, that’s okay: there’s a lot going on here that, if you squint your eyes and hold your nose (and sometimes, even if you don’t do either) could actually be comparable to all the world-class things you’d find elsewhere. You want art? We’ve got some! Ancient Chinese artifacts? You know it. Exotic fish? Sure, that too. We’re not suggesting you tear up your plane tickets or anything. But we do think that this summer, Toronto might just be able to compete with the big boys. Here, a brief guide to just some of what’s exceptional in this city—and how it stacks up against other big-ticket events around the world.
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- OVO Fest
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- <p><strong>WHAT:</strong> <a href="http://www.hondaindytoronto.com/" target="_blank">The Honda Indy</a> takes over the area around the Exhibition grounds from July 18 to 20, and for a weekend Toronto gets its annual taste of the motor-sports high life. The face of this year’s race is Oakville’s own James Hinchcliffe, the most successful Canadian driver since Jacques Villeneuve. While the race is the obvious highlight, the Indy brings with it a whole roster of non-car-related festivals, including <a href="http://www.hondaindytoronto.com/beerfest" target="_blank">a craft beer fest featuring Ontario brews</a>.</p><br /> <br /> <p><strong>SORT OF LIKE:</strong> The Indy circuit is nice and all, but it’s much more fun to pretend Toronto is a Formula One town, what with all the European sophistication it brings to mind. In that spirit, we choose to believe the Honda Indy is most like the Monaco Grand Prix, the glitziest, most glamorous auto racing event in the world.</p><br /> <br /> <p><strong>WORLD-CLASS RATING:</strong> 6</p>
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- Honda Indy Toronto
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- <p><strong>WHAT:</strong> By now, we’re all familiar with the Cirque du Soleil shtick: clowns and contortionists play with fire or water or horses, parents gape and kids cry in disbelief, everyone goes home happy. The Montreal-based entertainment juggernaut <a href="https://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/kurios/default.aspx" target="_blank">has a new show this summer</a>, and <a href="http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Review+Cirque+Soleil+Kurios+reveals+world+wonder/9801333/story.html" target="_blank">critics</a> who <a href="http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/stage/2014/05/02/kurios_is_cirque_du_soleils_strongest_act_in_years_review.html" target="_blank">saw it</a> <a href="http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Review+Cirque+Soleil+Kurios+reveals+world+wonder/9801333/story.html" target="_blank">there</a> have been calling it the troupe’s strongest in years. The theme is Cabinet of Curiosities, and the whole thing has an Industrial Revolution–era phantasmagorical quality about it, which sounds suitably vague and entrancing for a show like Cirque. It opens in Toronto in the Port Lands on July 24. Of course, if you don’t want to shell out $60 a ticket (and that’s for the cheap seats), you could always wait for the <a href="http://www.torontobuskerfest.com/" target="_blank">St. Lawrence Market–area Buskerfest</a>, which goes from August 21 to 24 and offers all the human disfiguration and dangerous unicycle riding you can handle—for free. </p><br /> <br /> <p><strong>SORT OF LIKE:</strong> It sounds like it’ll be a lot like Martin Scorsese’s movie <i>Hugo</i> in real life, sans visual effects. And as with all Cirque du Soleil performances, it’ll offer a little bit of everything on a grand, gilded scale—in city terms, it’s just a lot like Vegas. </p><br /> <br /> <p><strong>WORLD-CLASS RATING:</strong> 6</p>
- (Image: Martin Girard)
- Cirque du Soleil <i>Kurios</i>
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- <p><strong>WHAT:</strong> <a href="http://tiff.net/" target="_blank">TIFF</a> is the biggest party of the year. It’s the largest film festival in Canada, and, depending on who you ask, the largest in North America, too. But you knew that already. And you also knew that it’s the best time of year to see celebrities roaming the streets, to see movies months before they hit theatres, and to see your fellow Torontonians irate at all the road closures, restaurant closures, theatre closures…and you get the idea. But it’s fun! Honest! </p><br /> <br /> <p><strong>SORT OF LIKE:</strong> TIFF often gets compared to Cannes or Venice, but it’s really more like Telluride, which happens at around the same time. Like TIFF, it was a scrappy upstart 40 years ago and has grown into a major awards-season presence. Now, it’s our direct competition for world and North American premieres, but we still routinely get more star power and prestige—and will continue to until Harvey Weinstein stops showing up. (We hear he can be plied with a <a href="http://www.torontolife.com/informer/features/2012/10/29/soho-house-toronto/" target="_blank">Soho House martini</a>.) </p><br /> <br /> <p><strong>WORLD-CLASS RATING:</strong> 10</p>
- (Image: WireImage)
- TIFF
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- <p><strong>WHAT:</strong> The imperial palace in Beijing was a sprawling, labyrinthine collection of royal buildings, gardens and whole storehouses full of treasures, and for about 500 years—until 1925—the whole thing was entirely off-limits to anyone who wasn’t an emperor or an emperor’s servant. Now, the palace is run as a museum, and that museum has <a href="http://www.rom.on.ca/en/forbidden-city" target="_blank">generously lent the ROM some 200 objects from its vast collection</a>. These include portraits, silks and vases from the Qing dynasty, porcelain from the Ming dynasty, and a whole lot more. And what’s more, about 80 of the pieces on display have never been shown outside of China before. Open now and closing on September 1, it’s a gilded masterpiece of an exhibit—the perfect semi-educational afternoon if you have to entertain kids for a while. </p><br /> <br /> <p><strong>SORT OF LIKE:</strong> If you’re the kind of person who will see any blockbuster natural or human history exhibit there is, then it’s kind of like—well, honestly, it’s kind of like any human or natural history museum you’ve ever been to, anywhere in the world. If you’re really into ancient Chinese history, though, it’s only comparable to exhibits you can see on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.</p><br /> <br /> <p><strong>WORLD-CLASS RATING:</strong> 6</p>
- "Emperor Daoguang Enjoying an Autumn Day in the Garden" (Image: The Palace Museum, courtesy of the ROM)
- The Forbidden City at the ROM
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- <p><strong>WHAT:</strong> Let’s talk about the song of the summer. Will it be <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-zpOMYRi0w&feature=kp" target="_blank">Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy”</a>? <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG08ukJPtR8" target="_blank">Michael Jackson’s posthumous “Love Never Felt So Good” (with help from Justin Timberlake)</a>? <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIG7PVa8SS8" target="_blank">Röyksopp and Robyn’s “Do It Again”</a>? All wrong. The answer is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALV-QtDFpSw" target="_blank">Luke Bryan’s “Play it Again,”</a> a slow-burning ballad about love and music and storybook romance tinged with that down-home southern twang that makes country music so damn good—and sound so much like the lazy, love-filled days of summer. If you agree, then you’ll definitely want to check out the <a href="http://bootsandhearts.com/" target="_blank">Boots & Hearts Festival</a>, which takes over a dusty country field near Bowmanville, close to the eastern edge of the GTA, from July 31 to August 3. This year’s festival includes Bryan, along with country superstars Blake Shelton, Toby Keith, Hunter Hayes and Danielle Bradbery.</p><br /> <br /> <p><strong>SORT OF LIKE:</strong> The Calgary Stampede or Nashville’s CMA Fest. Boots & Hearts is the biggest country music festival in Ontario, and alumni include Sheryl Crow, Carrie Underwood and Tim McGraw.</p><br /> <br /> <p><strong>WORLD-CLASS RATING:</strong> 9 if you like country music, 6 if you don’t</p>
- (Image: Jeff Bierk)
- Boots and Hearts Music Festival
- Boots and Hearts Music Festival
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- <p><strong>WHAT:</strong> <a href="https://www.ripleyaquariums.com/canada/" target="_blank">A 135,000-square-foot aquarium</a> at the foot of the CN Tower, built almost exclusively to squeeze an extra $29.98 a person out of tourists who spotted it from the tower’s glass floor. It’s actually not a bad way to spend a day this summer, though: the building, while a little garish from the outside, is filled with a remarkable array of aquatic specimens, including the showstopper: an overhead tank full of sharks. There are day camps for kids, naturally, but also tankside yoga sessions most mornings and live jazz on Friday nights during the summer. </p><br /> <br /> <p><strong>SORT OF LIKE:</strong> We’d compare it to other great aquariums like Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium or Boston’s New England Aquarium, but with all its larger-than-sea-life features, it really is more akin to its namesake Ripley’s Believe It or Not museums. </p><br /> <br /> <p><strong>WORLD-CLASS RATING:</strong> 4</p>
- (Image: courtesy of Ripley's Aquarium of Canada)
- Ripley's Aquarium of Canada
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- <p><strong>WHAT:</strong> <a href="http://www.jfl42.com/" target="_blank">JFL42</a>, which begins its third annual incarnation on September 18, is the eminently confusing offshoot of Just for Laughs, Montreal’s famous summertime comedy festival. The idea is that there are 42 events, plus 7 headliner comics, over the course of 10 days, for which you buy a single digital pass with varying levels of show credits, up-close seats and big-name shows. Just remember to check in on your smartphone. Make sense? Don’t worry: no one gets it at first. But it’s worth putting up with the gimmick for the killer lineup. This year, headliners include Amy Schumer, Lena Dunham, Seth Meyers and Nick Offerman, while comedy fans will likely be excited for other acts like Mike Birbiglia, Chelsea Peretti, Tig Notaro and Paul F. Tompkins. </p><br /> <br /> <p><strong>SORT OF LIKE:</strong> Given the breadth of comedy talent on display and the fact that it’s largely mediated by your phone, it’s less like an actual event and more like your own personal, real-life version of Marc Maron’s <i>WTF</i> podcast. Which is a pretty good thing to be like. </p><br /> <br /> <p><strong>WORLD-CLASS RATING:</strong> 9</p>
- John Mulaney at last year's JFL42. (Image: TK)
- JFL42
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- <p><strong>WHAT:</strong> Until 2011, the raucous party that hits Toronto’s waterfront every July was known as Caribana. Most people still call it that, even if <a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/05/17/court-ruling-forces-caribana-to-find-new-name/" target="_blank">the Ontario Superior Court would really rather they didn’t</a>. This year, <a href="http://www.torontocaribbeancarnival.com/" target="_blank">festivities get underway on July 8 and culminate with the Grand Parade on August 8</a>. Expect lots of glitter, feathers and probably a little more skin than you’re used to. There’s also lots of music in all sorts of genres (Calypso? Reggae? Chutney? You bet!) with many of the performers flown in from Jamaica or Trinidad. </p><br /> <br /> <p><strong>SORT OF LIKE: </strong> Plenty of places celebrate Carnival with masquerades, food and parades. Venice has one of the largest celebrations in Europe, but it’s in February and fairly tame by comparison. The Caribbean version takes place in the blistering heat of summer, and the biggest and best is in Port of Spain, Trinidad.</p><br /> <br /> <p><strong>WORLD-CLASS RATING:</strong> 7</p>
- (Image: Anthony Berot)
- Scotiabank Caribbean Carnival
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- <p><strong>WHAT:</strong> For the past few years, most of the Art Gallery of Ontario’s marquee exhibitions have focused on acclaimed international artists: Picasso, for example, or more recently Francis Bacon and Henry Moore. Why so few Canadian artists starring in the rotation? The short answer: a large swath of Canadian art is, well, boring. (How many painters does it take to draw some orange trees in Algonquin Park? Seven. It took seven of them.) That’s why <a href="http://www.ago.net/alex-colville" target="_blank">the Alex Colville exhibition, opening at the AGO on August 23</a>, is so exciting. Here’s a homegrown painter with a truly original style, who painted his subjects—People! Horses! Mini Coopers!—in mesmerizingly bleak tranquility. It will be the largest-ever Colville exhibition, featuring more than 100 works by the recently deceased painter. </p><br /> <br /> <p><strong>SORT OF LIKE:</strong> <i>Jeff Koons: A Retrospective</i> at the Whitney in New York. Okay, it’s a stretch to compare Colville’s paintings to giant metal balloon animals. But both he and Koons are artists whose work has gone relatively un-exhibited in their home countries, and both shows represent the first major retrospective of each artist’s work. So is Alex Colville Canada’s Jeff Koons? This summer—and only this summer—why the hell not?</p><br /> <br /> <p><strong>WORLD-CLASS RATING:</strong> 7</p>
- (Image: A.C.Fine Arts, courtesy of the AGO)
- Alex Colville at the AGO
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- <p><strong>WHAT:</strong> The great struggle of summer: wanting to spend long, lazy days and nights watching bad blockbuster movies, and also needing to spend every waking moment outside before the weather turns, again. This is why outdoor movies were invented—and why <a href="http://www.torontolife.com/informer/toronto-culture/2014/06/05/toronto-outdoor-movie-guide-2014/" target="_blank">it's so great that Toronto is excelling at them</a>. The best place to catch a movie outdoors this summer, though, <a href="http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/freeflicks/">is at the Harbourfront Centre</a>. This year’s programming theme is Funny Girls, which includes newish releases like <i>In A World…</i> to recent classics like <i>Mean Girls</i> to actual classics like <i>Desk Set</i>. The shows are every Wednesday evening at sundown from July 2 through to August 27, and they’re always free. </p><br /> <br /> <p><strong>SORT OF LIKE:</strong> Every major city worth its weight in popcorn seems to have an outdoor screening program these days, but our favourite is the Sala Montüic in Barcelona, which screens classics three times a week in one of the city’s prettiest corners, against a wall of an old castle. </p><br /> <br /> <strong>WORLD-CLASS RATING:</strong> 6
- (Image: Riley Wallace)
- The Harbourfront Centre's Free Flicks
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- <p><strong>WHAT:</strong> From September 12 to 14, Queen West is the best place to see art in the city. The Queen West Art Crawl takes over the street from Roncesvalles to Bathurst, offering devoted art lovers the chance to see the work of more than 250 local (and sometimes non-local) artists. (And, naturally, to buy some as well.) The event is set up for gallery-hopping, but it culminates with the Toronto Outdoor Art Show and Sale in Trinity Bellwoods, where there are food stalls and artisan booths alongside displays of fine art.</p><br /> <br /> <p><strong>SORT OF LIKE: </strong> Admittedly, QWAC is relatively small-scale when it comes to global art events. But don’t underestimate the power of a good art crawl, whether it’s local, as in the case of QWAC or the Venice Art Crawl in L.A., or internationally renowned, as in the case of Mexico City’s Gallery Weekend, a blockbuster event that’s part art crawl and part art fair, exhibiting work from some of the city’s biggest contemporary art museums.</p><br /> <br /> <br /> <p><strong>WORLD-CLASS RATING:</strong> 3, tops, but let’s say 4 for effort</p>
- (Image: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/philipj/6159382213" target="_blank">Philip Johnson</a>/Flickr)
- Queen West Art Crawl
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- <p><strong>WHAT:</strong> From August 28 to 31, the Metro Toronto Convention Centre will be overrun with <i>Star Wars</i> and <i>Sailor Moon</i> costumes. As it is every year. In fact, this is the 20th anniversary of <a href="http://www.fanexpocanada.com/" target="_blank">Fan Expo Canada</a>, which bills itself as the third-largest pop culture festival in North America. It would take far too long to list all of this year’s A-list guests, but here’s a short sampling: Nathan Fillion, Patrick Stewart, Elijah Wood, Stan Lee and Richard Dreyfuss, all of whom will no doubt be available for autograph signing and general accosting. </p><br /> <br /> <p><strong>SORT OF LIKE:</strong> San Diego’s Comic-Con International, the original and first-largest pop culture festival in North America. Expect a similar lineup of famous guests at both festivals, but a comparatively laid-back atmosphere in Toronto due mainly to our milder, Canadian version of fanaticism. </p><br /> <br /> <p><strong>WORLD-CLASS RATING:</strong> 6</p>
- (Image: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/38778079@N02/12368842673/in/set-72157640642391525" target="_blank">Mediatonic PR</a>/Flickr)
- Fan Expo Canada
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- <p><strong>WHAT:</strong> Riot Fest started in Chicago in 2005 and has since expanded to a rotating series of North American cities. As we’ve done the two previous summers, Toronto is getting in on the action, this year by <a href="http://riotfest.org/toronto/lineup/" target="_blank">hosting a who’s-who of indie-rock bands at a massive stage in Downsview Park on September 6 and 7</a>—a kind of cleanup festival to take advantage of all the summery things you maybe didn’t do in July and August. The lineup includes all the usual CanCon suspects—Metric, Stars, City and Colour—but we’re most excited for The National and the Flaming Lips. Because, real talk: it just wouldn’t be summer without Wayne Coyne floating in an inflatable bubble over our heads at least once.</p><br /> <br /> <p><strong>SORT OF LIKE:</strong> Another Chicago institution, Lollapalooza, which takes over Grant Park for a weekend in August. Or maybe Osheaga, which does the same thing in Montreal. Really, it’s just a fun outdoor summer music festival.</p><br /> <br /> <p><strong>WORLD-CLASS RATING:</strong> 6</p>
- Wayne Coyne at Downsview Park in 2003 for Molson Canadian Rocks. (Image: Theo Wargo/WireImage)
- Riot Fest
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What’s one of the best things to do in Toronto this summer? If you can, get out of Toronto. See the world. Find another city’s heat and construction and transit problems to keep you occupied—preferably a city that’s got a globally recognized art gallery or museum or horse race or something. Of course, if you find yourself stuck in the city all season, that’s okay: there’s a lot going on here that, if you squint your eyes and hold your nose (and sometimes, even if you don’t do either) could actually be comparable to all the world-class things you’d find elsewhere. You want art? We’ve got some! Ancient Chinese artifacts? You know it. Exotic fish? Sure, that too. We’re not suggesting you tear up your plane tickets or anything. But we do think that this summer, Toronto might just be able to compete with the big boys. Here, a brief guide to just some of what’s exceptional in this city—and how it stacks up against other big-ticket events around the world.
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