Blogs of Note

World's Fare My youngest and I went to Harbourfront Centre on Friday night to enjoy the continuation of the summer festivals. This week (as it was last week) is the World's Fare celebrations, entitled, The America's Now. This is the flagship festival for Harbourfront, as it celebrates the multicultural nature of Toronto. The show was quite good. We saw some dancing to start off, with Red Sky Productions putting on a few samples from their "Dancing Americas" show. There was a grass dancer, as well as a couple (Native Mexican and Canadian) performing a modern dance piece. We usually end up at the CIBC stage, where the evening music performances are held. We saw Alacie Tullaugaq & Lucie Amarualik, two Inuit throat singers from Nunavut performing. They're in their mid-60s, and it's amazing what they can do. My daughter was quite impressed by the pair. Kanenhi:io Singers followed, and they were impressive as well. They are four native women singers from Canada, singing and chanting, accompanied by the Iroquoian water drum, Anishnabe hand drum and cow horn shakers. Topping off the evening was Hassan Hakmoun. He was tremendous. He's originally from Morocco, now living in the US, and his music is based on the 3 string sintir, which he brings from his Gnawa heritage. His music fuses African and Arabian sounds, chants and words. He was accompanied by two musicians from Morocco and one from the California. The beat of his music was so tremendous, that some in the audience was moved to dance (including a bald, shirtless guy, who seem to frequent the festivities - he was there last year as well). It was quite the enjoyable evening. You can check out the pictures I took of the event via my gallery page (see the links in the left hand column).