One full month of Toronto holiday festivities officially begins with the 42nd edition of the Cavalcade of Lights from November 29 - December 31. On Saturday, November 29th the opening celebrations begin with live entertainment and the lighting of the enormous Christmas tree at Nathan Phillips Square at 7:15 PM. This spectacular tree has over 100,000 lights and ornaments. The entertainment continues until 8:00 PM when it’s time for the Cavalcade of Lights fireworks. Lace up your skates from 8:10 PM - 10:00 PM and enjoy the rink and the music. This fantastic family-friendly event is absolutely FREE.

The Cavalcade of Lights is not just confined to Nathan Phillips Square. Twenty neighbourhoods and tourist attractions  across the GTA will have their very own lighting displays. The best way to see these fantastic displays is on the Cavalcade of Lights Bus Tour. Every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from November 28 - December 21 the Cavalcade of Lights is operating 90 minute guided bus tours through Toronto’s neighbourhoods and tourist attractions for a $25.00 charge. Pick-ups and drop-offs are at Nathan Phillips Square located at 100 Queen Street West. Here is information on how to purchase tickets.

Every Saturday evening from 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM throughout the month-long festival there will be FREE live concerts and fireworks at Nathan Phillips Square. Check out the fantastic line-up of entertainment. The skating rink will be open daily from 10:00 AM - 10:00 PM. Skate rentals are available as are indoor change rooms. Children under the age of 6 are required to wear CSA approved helmets.

The Cavalcade of Lights is a fabulous FREE month-long event for the whole family. Come on Toronto, let’s get out and celebrate!

Image courtesy Flickr.com

Toronto-based Rethink Breast Cancer is organizing this historic event in order to raise awareness about breast cancer globally. Unlike other breast cancer organizations, the group is focused on reaching out to young people who are affected by breast cancer or concerned about it. This festival will feature films, individual stories and discussions about the issues surrounding the disease. After some films there will be either a panel discussion or a question and answer session with the director.

Renée Zellweger is one of the executive producers of the film that was chosen to open the festival – Living Proof. This important film is the true story of Dr. Dennis Slamon, the UCLA doctor who helped to develop the breast cancer drug, Herceptin. The star studded cast includes Harry Connick Jr., Angie Harmon, Bernadette Peters, Amanda Bynes, and Swoosie Kurtz. This is the complete list of films. Film makers from around the world have entered the Breast Fest Film Festival short film competition. These are the submitted films. In their own unique voices they share their stories. The winner of the Breast Fest Film Festival short film competition will be announced, screened and presented the Amazing Grace award, named after Canadian filmmaker Grace Cianciotta on Saturday, November 22nd.

The Breast Fest is taking place at the Royal Ontario Museum Theatre located at 100 Queen’s Park. Buy your tickets online. Opening night tickets are only $25.00 each and include access to the opening night party. All other films are $10.00. If you would like to make a donation to this worthy cause, please click here.

In Canada, Halloween spending accounted for approximately $1.15 billion in sales in 2006. According to the Retail Council of Canada, 68% of Canadians plan to participate in at least one Halloween-related activity this year - going to a party, wearing a costume, handing out candy, taking children trick-or-treating, getting together with friends, and/or decorating their home - and 47% of Canadians plan to purchase or rent Halloween costumes. Sex is the theme for women’s adult costumes. Some of the most popular for women are sexy pirate wenches, Elvira, Wonder Woman, Bettie Page, French Maid, and sexy witches. The most popular men’s costumes have a movie theme - Indiana Jones, the Joker, Sweeny Todd, Anakin Skywalker, and Clone Troopers.

Adults looking for a Toronto Halloween to remember have plenty of choice:

•    Canada’s premier scream park www.screemers.ca will curdle your blood   from October 17 – 19 and again from October 23 – November 1 at the CNE’s Scream Elizabeth Building. Buy your admission tickets if your heart can take it.
•    Enjoy a fabulous floating Halloween party! Halloween Cruises include a devilish 4-hour party, appetizers and snacks, live DJ, dancing, cash bar, costume contest with prizes, and an evening that you’ll be talking about for years to come.

•    The Toronto After Dark Film Festival from October 17 – 24 features new horror, sci-fi, fantasy, action, animated, and cult films from around the world.

•    The Monster Bash for swingers and adventurous couples takes place on October 24th & October 25th at the Solarium at Polson Pier. Appropriate costumes are mandatory.

•    Attend Fashion Cares, the gala fundraiser in support of the AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT). This year’s theme is Hitchcock meets Haute Couture.

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of year for families and friends to come together, give thanks, and celebrate. Here are some great Thanksgiving events in Toronto for the whole family to enjoy.

•    Black Creek Pioneer Village:  Make your reservations for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in their unique, authentic 19th century setting, complete with music and a dramatic reading. Dinner is offered on October 12th and October 13th at 1:30 PM, 3:00 PM and 6:00 PM. Call 416-667-6295 or email bcpved@trca.on.ca for more information.

•    Take a drive and see the fall colours. Check out the Fall Colour Report and enjoy one of the true gifts of nature.

•    Toronto Thanksgiving cruises: Celebrate in a novel way this year and enjoy a Thanksgiving feast out on the water instead. Relax and enjoy on your choice of two Toronto Thanksgiving cruises - Saturday, October 11th, 2008 and Sunday, October 12th, 2008. For an incredible all-inclusive price you will enjoy a scenic 4-hour cruise, reserved seating, a very special Thanksgiving hot buffet dinner featuring delicious traditional selections as well as vegetarian options, live DJ, dancing, and a cash bar. Make your reservations today .

•    Beaches Laughter Club: Have a laugh this Thanksgiving! Relax and unwind with a FREE laughter yoga class on Monday, October 13th at the Beaches Recreation Centre located at 6 Williamson Road. For more information contact Beverley Howell at 416-691-8408 or laughteryoga@sympatico.ca

•    International Home Show: If you can’t get home renovations or decorating off your mind, indulge yourself and visit the International Home Show on October 10th – October 13th at the International Centre located at 6900 Airport Road in Mississauga. Over 450 industry experts and exhibitors will be on hand to answer all of your questions and solve your renovating and decorating dilemmas.

•    The Kortright Centre’s Thanksgiving Harvest Brunch and Dinner: Enjoy a special family Thanksgiving brunch or dinner October 12th. After your delicious meal take a guided hike and warm up with some hot apple cider beside the bonfire. For more information call 416-667-6295.

•    The Salvation Army Thanksgiving Congress “Harvest of Hope”: The Salvation Army invites everyone to join them for a weekend of spiritual renewal and celebration on October 10th – 12th at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Admission is FREE and no pre-registration is required.

Don’t forget that there are many families that are less fortunate than you are and demand at the food banks is at an all time high. Please be generous if you can.

Photo courtesy Flickr

The Royal Ontario Museum will be bringing the Dead Sea scrolls to Toronto next summer. This is an enormous coup as the Dead Sea Scrolls are considered to be the greatest manuscript find of the 20th century. Together they represent a library dating from the 3rd century B.C.E. to 68 C.E. and represent a great deal of importance to Jews and Christians alike, not to mention the historical implications to everyone. According to ROM chief executive William Thorsell, “They are foundation documents in the Jewish tradition, in the Christian tradition and they are seen as divinely inspired in the Islamic tradition”.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 11 caves along the northwest shore of the Dead Sea between the years 1947 and 1956. They had been hidden in the caves for over 2,000 years. Although they are most commonly made of animal skins, there have been discoveries of scrolls on papyrus, as well as one made of copper. They were written in three different languages - Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek - with a carbon-based ink, from right to left, using almost no punctuation.

The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit will be on at the ROM from June 27, 2009 – January 3, 2010. Eight of the original scrolls, written on papyrus and parchment, will be on display for three months at a time. In addition on display will be the jars that they were stored in, the stone portals of a temple that the Romans disassembled in 70 AD, and other artifacts from ancient Judea. The Dead Sea Scrolls are an incredibly important learning tool in understanding the evolutionary link between Judaism and Christianity. The ROM will be offering 6 months of lectures, special programs, and events to support and enhance the exhibit.

The Toronto arts community will open its doors from sunset to sunrise on Saturday, October 4th for Nuit Blanche. This is a marvelous event for sleepless Torontonians in need of a concentrated dose of culture. Fashioned after the uber-trendy event in Paris, Nuit Blanche was originally conceived as an attempt to bring contemporary art to the people in public spaces. More than 1 million people take to the streets in Paris annually for this sleepless night of artistic experiences. Nuit Blanche has become international with Toronto, Montreal, New York, Chicago, Miami, San Francisco, Leeds, Brussels, Rome, Madrid, La Valette, Bucharest, Riga, and Tokyo now with their own Nuit Blanche event.

Nuit Blanche is truly an event for the people and it is totally FREE. For 12 continuous hours museums and galleries will open their doors and offer free access. City spaces all over Toronto will become venues for temporary exhibitions. The city will be divided into 3 Zones - Downtown North, Downtown South, and South/West - each featuring Exhibition Projects and Independent Projects with a total of 155 destinations to visit. There will be 45 Exhibition Projects by local, national, and international artists that have been commissioned within four outdoor exhibitions under the direction of 4 curators. The Independent Projects will be presented by Toronto’s museums, galleries and other cultural and educations facilities featuring the works of new and established artists. Here is a detailed list of what you can find in each zone.

There are Information Centres conveniently located in each Zone.
•    Zone A Information Centre will be located at Yonge-Dundas Square at south-east corner of Yonge Street and Dundas Street East.
•    Zone B Information Centre will be located at the Scotia Plaza at 40 King Street West. Use the entrance at Adelaide Street and King Street.
•    Zone C Information Centre will be located at the Lamport Stadium South parking lot at 1151 King Street West. Use the entrance on Liberty Street.

Please leave your car at home and use the TTC. If you must drive, park near an all night subway station. Here is all of the info on the best way to get around Nuit Blanche.

Don’t start writing in that we are promoting anything pornographic. This is a nice family-friendly blog and the Virgin Festival is a music festival sponsored by Virgin Mobile. Saturday, September 6th and Sunday, September 7th the park will open at 1:00 PM and the gates will close at 11:00 PM. The line-up is just outstanding!

One day passes are $87 and two day passes are $157. One dollar of each ticket goes to Virgin’s Charity. Children under the age of 4 are permitted to enter free of charge as long as they are accompanied by a ticketed adult. Buy your tickets online at www.ticketmaster.ca or www.futureshop.ca, by phone 416–870-8000, or in person at TicketMaster locations and at the following Future Shop locations:
• Yonge & Eglinton
• Yonge & Dundas
• Keele & St. Clair

Food vendors will be onsite offering vegan, vegetarian, and non-vegetarian options. There is a dedicated viewing area for people with special needs.

It’s easy to get to the Toronto Island Park. If you are driving, take Lakeshore Boulevard to Bay Street and go south on Bay to Queens Quay. The ferry docks are right beside the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel. There are plenty of parking lots in the area and they are all too expensive. Take the TTC instead. Take the subway or GO to Union Station. From there you can take a short walk over to the ferry dock or take the 509 Harbourfront streetcar to the ferry docks. Take the Centre Island Ferry. The ferry fees are included in your festival ticket. Have fun!

As Canadians, we are often so busy following the lives and antics of American celebrities that we sadly ignore our own. Now is your opportunity to change all that. Saturday, September 6th is the time that we will celebrate our own when Canada’s Walk of Fame honours 8 new Canadian celebrities. To date 107 fabulous Canadians have been inducted.

The 2008 inductees are:
• Bryan Adams – recording artist
• Frances Bay - actor
• James Cameron – director and producer
• Michael J. Fox – actor and activist
• k.d. lang – recording artist
• The Kids in the Hall – comedy troupe
• Steve Nash – NBA star
• Daria Werbowy – supermodel

Although Brian Adams (1998) and Michael J. Fox (2000) have previously been inducted, they were unable to attend the ceremonies.

The red carpet event begins at 5:00 PM. Stake out your spot outside the Four Seasons Centre for Performing Arts located at 145 Queen Street West (Queen Street and University Avenue) and watch the celebrities arrive.

Canada’s Walk of Fame began in 1998 to honour Canadians who have made their mark in music, sport, film, sports, and performing, literary or visual arts. In order to be an inductee there are certain criteria that must be met.
• Inductee must have been born in Canada or have spent their formative or creative years in Canada.
• Inductee must have a minimum of 10 years experience in their field.
• Inductee must have had national or international impact on Canada’s Heritage.

This is the 10th Anniversary of Canada’s Walk of Fame and the first ever inaugural Inductee Ball will take place at the Sheraton Centre’s Grand Ballroom.

Have a walk along King Street and look at all of the stars. Here is a map of the inductees and where you can find them.
http://www.canadaswalkoffame.com/starmap

Image Courtesy Flickr

If you haven’t had the opportunity to take in this fantastic event yet, don’t delay! The Chinese Lantern Festival takes place nightly from 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM until September 1st at Ontario Place. From September 2nd – October 12th, the Festival will be held on Thursday and Friday evenings from 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM and on Saturday and Sunday evenings from 5:00 PM – 10:00 PM.

This is your opportunity to participate in a unique experience. The Chinese Lantern Festival features 32 massive displays created by the magical hands of the craftsmen of Zigong, China. Each display is an event all on its own from dinosaurs to seascapes and from the Tower of Pisa to the Taj Mahal. You can globe trot and time travel all in one magical evening. There is plenty to engage and delight the whole family including traditional Chinese tea ceremonies, martial arts demonstrations, acrobats, and Chinese dance ensembles.

Tickets are $20 for children aged 4 – 12, $25 for people aged 13 – 64, $20 for seniors aged 65 and over, and there are family passes available for $95. They are available on site at the Ontario Place Gates, at the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto located near Sheppard Avenue and Markham Road, or you can buy your tickets online and avoids the queues.

Ontario Place is located at 955 Lakeshore Boulevard West, south of Exhibition Place, between Dufferin Street and Strachan Avenue. It is easily accessible by car, TTC and GO Transit. Follow the link below for TTC and driving directions. http://www.chineselanternfestival.ca/english/getting_here.html

Image courtesy Flickr

July 18 – July 27 is the 20th anniversary of The Beaches International Jazz Festival and it promises to be bigger and better than ever! Over 1 million visitors are expected to take in performances by more than 700 artists.

July 18 – July 20 the action will be at Woodbine Park, located at the corner of Northern Dancer Boulevard (situated between Coxwell and Woodbine Avenues) and Lake Shore Boulevard East. Come early to reserve your place. There will be a special area available for people who use wheelchairs/scooters. Follow the link below for the complete line-up and schedule at Woodbine Park.

July 24 – 26 is time for Streetfest, which takes place along a 2 km stretch of Queen St. East. It is absolutely FREE and there will be live performances by 50 bands - Big Band, Swing, Dixieland, Smooth, Post-Bop, Afro-Cuban, Fusion, Funk, R&B, and Soul. Follow the link below for the line-up and schedule at Streetfest.

July 26 – July 27 the action will be at Kew Gardens with plenty of FREE continuous concerts on the main stage. Come early to stake out your place. Bring along a blanket or chair and stay a while. There is a licensed lounge just a stone’s throw a way in case you work up a thirst. There will be a special area available for people who use wheelchairs/scooters. For a complete schedule and line-up at Kew Gardens follow the link.

Leave your car at home and take the TTC. The congestion and street closures will make driving and parking a nightmare. Take the 92 Woodbine South Bus from Woodbine Subway Station or the 22 Coxwell Bus from Coxwell Station or the 501 Queen St Streetcar east from the Queen or Osgoode Subway Stations. If you do decide to drive please make note of these street closures: During Streetfest taking place on Thursday July 24th, Friday July 25th, and Saturday July 25th Queen Street East will be closed from Woodbine Ave. to Beech Ave. from 6:00 PM - 11:30 PM nightly.