Two civic leaders' response to a battered tourism economy in 2003

Luminato Festival

After the 2003 SARS outbreak hurt Toronto's tourism economy and public image, two prominent Torontonians pitched a large-scale 'cultural Olympics' to signal the city was open, creative and globally connected.

Luminato was founded in 2007 by Tony Gagliano and the late David Pecaut, two prominent Toronto civic leaders. The idea grew directly out of the 2003 SARS outbreak, which had battered Toronto's tourism economy and public image; Gagliano and Pecaut began discussing a large-scale "cultural Olympics" that could help rebuild the city's cultural profile.

A decade of growth

The first festival launched in June 2007 and ran roughly ten days, featuring performers including Rufus Wainwright, Randy Bachman and director John Malkovich, alongside visual-art installations, theatre and opera. Luminato positions itself as a multidisciplinary festival cutting across music, dance, theatre and visual art, and as one of Canada's most active commissioning bodies for new work, drawing more than one million cumulative visitors within its first three years.

Sources

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