Jeanette Winterson has a complicated relationship with religion. On one hand, she has every reason to reject it—in her semi-autobiographical first novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985), she explains how her Pentecostal Christian adoptive mother was so evangelical that when she read Jane Eyre aloud to a young Winterson, she changed the ending so that Jane married St. John River and went on to become a missionary. "The Devil led us to the wrong crib," her mother used to say whenever she was unhappy with her.

The Cast of LU XUN Blossoms. Photo courtesy of the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre. LU XUN Blossoms Isabel Bader Theatre (93 Charles Street West) June 15–18, 8 p.m.; June 18, 2 p.m.; $46.50–56.50 ($25 day-of rush tickets) Luminato has finally brought LU XUN Blossoms, a collaboration between Theatre Smith-Gilmour and The Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre, [...]

Tonight is going to be a good one: start off your evening at the Toronto Wine and Spirit Festival; soak up the atmosphere at the first night of a weekly outdoor film and music festival; check out the final show of a trio of Second City cast members, and witness one of the most talked-about fundraising events in Toronto. Amongst all that, Luminato events offer up even more fun.

With Luminato’s first weekend now behind us, we’ve got a better sense of how this year’s festival is shaping up. As with previous years, at times the eclecticism feels like it might risk veering off into incoherence (though this has been improving), and as is inevitable with a large, multi-faceted festival, there is a mix [...]

Sleight-of-hand magician Eric Mead last night at David Pecaut Square, Luminato’s festival hub. Photo by Corbin Smith/Torontoist. Eric Mead David Pecaut Square, formerly Metro Square (55 John Street) June 10, 5 p.m.; June 11–12, 7 p.m.; FREE Natural Magick Tarragon Theatre (30 Bridgman Avenue) June 10–16, 8 p.m., $36.50–$41.50 As we embarked on Luminato’s opening [...]

This weekend in Toronto: a festival for our four-legged friends, an animal-adoption drive, a clothing-optional bike excursion, a DJ set by Caribou, an art market, Knit in Public Day, chef-prepared food for a good cause, and see what the first days of Luminato have to offer.

Participants in one of Improv Everywhere’s previous MP3 Experiments take part in an all-out balloon war. Luminato is about to embark on its fifth year, and like any respectable five-year-old’s birthday party, this year’s all-encompassing arts festival is chock full of magicians, good eats, and music. There’s even an afternoon concert with They Might Be [...]

From June 11–20, Torontoist explored the best and most promising of Luminato’s many offerings. Max Maven the mentalist. Photo by Wittus Witt. On Friday evening we entered the Panasonic Theatre for the third part of Luminato’s “Masters of Magic” series with one question on our minds: who is spending two-and-a-half hours of their Friday night [...]

From June 11–20, Torontoist is exploring the best and most promising of Luminato’s many offerings. The party continues at Roy Thomson Hall at the after-party for TSO Goes Late Night. Photo by John Loper and provided by the TSO. It was 11 p.m. on Saturday night, and hundreds of Toronto’s biggest music junkies headed through [...]

From June 11–20, Torontoist is exploring the best and most promising of Luminato’s many offerings. On Cape Breton Island. Photo by tanya_keigan from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. On Wednesday evening in the Toronto Reference Library’s still spanking-new-feeling Bram and Bluma Appel Salon, Luminato hosted an event that had the potential to manifest as a parody [...]

Urban Planner is Torontoist’s guide to what’s on in Toronto, published every weekday morning, and in a weekend edition Friday afternoons. If you have an event you’d like considered, email all of its details—as well as images, if you’ve got any—to events@torontoist.com. Alex McCleod’s Twilight Terror explores the darker side of the environments man constructs [...]

From June 11–20, Torontoist is exploring the best and most promising of Luminato’s many offerings. The cast of Best Before. There are performers, but no actors. There are observers, but no audience. There is a script, but no planned story. In other words, it is a play, but also a game. Mixing traditional theatre productions [...]