T.O.’s Ambitious New Festival

Toronto is starting a new arts festival, and modesty isn’t on the agenda. The fest, to be launched in 2007, will be called Luminato, and “organizers hope [it] will boost the city’s profile worldwide and one day rival international arts events in Edinburgh, Venice and Sydney… The 10-day festival will feature mostly free events, including two street festivals. And it will showcase world premieres of works of art, including a spoof of Handel’s Messiah called Not the Messiah, written by Eric Idle and John Du Prez, of the Tony-award winning Spamalot musical. The new oratorio will be based on Monty Python’s Life of Brian, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra will perform the piece.”