The most exciting performances at the 2025 Luminato Festival

What's happening at this year's Luminato Festival? There'll be music, dance, theatre, public art and a 2.7 tonne iceberg dangled above a downtown Toronto intersection. In short, expect something you've never experienced before, and that's especially true of the productions making their big debut at the festival.

The annual event runs from June 4 to 22 at venues across the city and includes several original commissions and Canadian premieres. But in a place like Toronto, you've got to go big if you want to capture folks' attention. "Luminato has really taken to this idea of allowing Torontonians and visitors to see the city in a new and unexpected way, and we do that by injecting art into places where you might not expect it," says Lucy Eveleigh, an executive producer at Luminato. "Of course, it's also in theatres and the places you would expect it," she laughs. But if "you're going through Brookfield Place and you just stumble across a giant hamster wheel in rainbow colours, you're gonna say 'what is going on?'" 

Yes, a human-sized hamster wheel will indeed be stationed in the Financial District. (Eveleigh has more to say about that later.) And as that project's rat-race vibes might suggest, the theme of this year's program is Day: Night, a topic selected by Luminato's new artistic director, Olivia Ansell.

Ansell knows what it's like to see a city through fresh eyes. A relative newcomer to Toronto, she previously helmed the Sydney Festival in Australia, and 2025 marks her inaugural program for Luminato. "What I noticed upon arriving was the pulse of the city: the energy, the conversations, the culture," she says. "I just started to feel like the energy of this city was really a 24-hour cyclical affair." 

For three weeks this June, Luminato will be contributing to the city's round-the-clock hustle. The program features a mix of ticketed and free events, and several offerings have never been presented in Canada before. Here are a few of those highlights plus info on where you can find them.

Dawn Chorus

Where: Union Station

When: June 4 and 5

For thousands of people, every weekday begins with a mad dash through Union Station, and on the morning of June 4, Luminato will launch its 19th edition from the same chaotic site. The festival opens with a free immersive production, Dawn Chorus. It's an all-new work which is making its world premiere at the festival, and for an hour starting at 7:30 a.m., classical choirs will wander up and down the halls of Toronto's busiest transit hub. In roaming packs, they'll perform the production's titular song (a 2019 track by Radiohead's Thom Yorke). And if passersby aren't too fussed about missing their first meeting of the day, they can follow the singers through the building, Pied Piper-style. 

Polish opera director Krystian Lada is the architect of the piece, and according to Ansell, more than 100 local singers were recruited for the show. If all goes to plan, a growing audience of 9-to-5-ers will follow the choirs into the Great Hall, where everyone will ultimately gather for the production's grand finale. 

"Everybody's early morning commute will be beautifully and sonically interrupted with a cacophony of sound at Union Station," says Ansell. Adds Eveleigh: "I think it will be very special for people to just happen upon." 

If you miss out on the action because you were too busy queuing for coffee, a repeat performance will take place the following morning.

Thaw

Where: Sankofa Square

When: June 7 and 8

Billboards, buskers, screaming street preachers. Everything at Sankofa Square is fighting for your attention. But on Luminato's opening weekend, I'd wager nothing will match the pure spectacle of Thaw, a durational performance staged 20 metres above the ground — on a hunk of ice that's melting in the sun.

The show, which is free to attend, will be appearing in the square on back-to-back days. Running from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. on June 7 and 8, it features a revolving cast of daring solo actors who will perform from on top of the ice. 

Created by Joshua Thomson of Australia's Legs On the Wall theatre company, the piece was originally commissioned for the Sydney Festival in 2022, during Ansell's tenure as festival director. Since then, it's toured to cities including Auckland, Antwerp and London. This upcoming production for Luminato will be Thaw's first appearance in North America. "It's talking about there being no time to waste," says Ansell. "In our plans to have greater sustainability and climate action, we have made progress, but you know, are we making progress fast enough?"

Queen of the Night Communion

Where: Metropolitan United Church

When: June 6 and 7

Luminato loves doing shows in "unusual spaces," says Eveleigh, and that's the case here too. This original commission from Toronto's Tapestry Opera is set in a neo-gothic church downtown. There, audiences will mingle with a cast of infamous characters, including the Queen of the Night herself. "There's going to be beautiful singing and an organist and it's going to be very dark and sort of mysterious," says Eveleigh of the ticketed show, which is billed as an immersive experience. "It won't feel like any sort of regular concert recital," says Ansell. "It'll be somewhat liberated and edgy," she says. "'Up close' is probably the best way to describe it."

Rainbow Dreams

Where: Brookfield Place, Bay Adelaide Centre, First Canadian Place

When: June 4 to July 25 

"It's a bit of an oasis in the middle of the city," says Eveleigh, describing this free public-art project by Hiromi Tango. The artist, who's based in Australia, is known for playing with all the colours of the spectrum, and Rainbow Dreams is her first exhibition in North America. For the multi-site show, she'll be painting the town red (and yellow and green, etc.) at three separate locations downtown. Each of those spaces will be transformed into kaleidoscopic environments where visitors are encouraged to hang out. "She has created this world, essentially," says Eveleigh. At First Canadian Place, there's Rainbow Calm, where visitors can chill on beanbag chairs. At Brookfield Place, passersby can go for a run on the Rainbow Wheel (the aforementioned giant hamster spinner). Plus, a variety of free public events will be hosted at each site through the run of the exhibition: pilates, yoga, origami workshops and more. The artist herself will even be in town to lead a tour.

Dandyism

Where: Various locations

When: June 8, 10, 14-15

This free production will be popping up at locations throughout the GTA, including The Well (June 8), Scarborough Town Centre (June 10) and Brampton Farmers Market (June 14), so watch the Luminato website for the latest information.

Created by London-based choreographer Ziza Patrick, who's also part of the show, Dandyism features dance, spoken-word and incredible costumes which are assembled from local thrift shops. The production is a celebration of resistance and self-expression, inspired by the Sapeurs of the Congo, and when Eveleigh caught it at a past edition of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, she knew Toronto audiences would love it. Dandyism will be making its Canadian premiere at Luminato. "[The performers] encourage folks to dance with them and so there's this real energy exchange," she says. "I'm excited to see that happen here in various places in Toronto."

Hamlet

Where: Harbourfront Centre Theatre

When: June 13 to 15

Endlessly retold and remounted, Hamlet is arguably the most famous play in the world. But this particular production, which is making its Canadian premiere at Luminato, isn't strictly Shakespeare. Created by Peru's Teatro La Plaza, and starring a cast of eight actors with Down syndrome, Hamlet will arrive in Toronto this June following several international appearances, including a recent run at the Lincoln Center in New York. In one review, the Guardian described the show as "a comment on Shakespeare's Hamlet — and our world — rather than an enactment of it." The performers portray the Danish prince (among other characters) interchangeably, and stories from their own lives are blended with Shakespeare. Luminato's Olivia Ansell fell in love with the production after seeing a performance in Brussels. "I just love the joy that it brought the audience," she says. "Hamlet is like, "I've got this life and I'm going to do something with it," says Ansell. (To be or not to be, you know?) "These young people on stage are just so full of life and full of joy and full of their own agency.… It's a brilliant piece to see."

Terceradix Luminarium

Where: Harbourfront Centre

When: June 4 to 22

During Luminato, Harbourfront Centre will serve as the festival's hub. It's where you'll find the widest assortment of programming, including an entire weekend of free music (June 13 to 15). But the biggest attraction has got to be Terceradix Luminarium, and I mean that quite literally. From the outside, this 41-metre-long inflatable sculpture could be mistaken for the world's largest bouncy castle. In reality, however, the experience sounds way more chill. Described as a "walk-in sculpture" on the festival website, it's an immersive environment of soothing light and colour. According to Ansell, ticket holders can expect "a gentle, luminous experience," and visitors are encouraged to wander through it at their own pace.

Created by the UK-based design company Architects of Air, Terceradix Luminarium has put down stakes in other cities before, and it is, in fact, one of several touring "luminaria" in the company's collection. This is its first appearance in Canada, however, and special to Luminato, Aaron Schwebel, the concertmaster at the National Ballet of Canada, has created an original show that will be staged inside the structure. Terceradix Luminarium: Bach & Beyond features a mix of classical and contemporary music, as performed by a string duo. "I think it's the first time a festival's done anything like this inside an Architects of Air structure," says Ansell. "The light and the colour: it really does play with your senses when listening to the music. And so there are parts of music at Triceradex where we encourage you to lie down and close your eyes." (Those shows, which are also ticketed, run June 5 to 8 and June 19 to 22.)

2025 Luminato Festival. June 4 to 22. Various locations, Toronto. www.luminatofestival.com