By Ben Viccari
Recently I had the good fortune to meet the two Toronto men whose ideas and persistence over the past four years have led to the start of Luminato, the massive festival of arts and creativity that begins June first.
Tony Gagliano and David Pecaut, co-founders of the festival attended a conference for the ethnic media and introduced us to Janice Price, the CEO and Chris Lorway, vice-president of programming.
These two Canadians left important positions in the United States to come here to get things organized and what an array of events and talents theyve arranged as youll find out by checking the website at http://www.luminato.com/.
Hosting the media conference was Toronto restaurateur Roberto Martella, an ardent enthusiast of cultural events, in whose establishment, Grano, many of the planning meetings were held.
So although Luminato events and performances originate in many other parts of the world beside Canada, the inspiration for Luminato is purely Canadian. So please, I beg you, when anyone tries to tell you Canadians are dull dogs incapable of generating ideas — point to Stratford, point to the Shaw Festival and point to Luminato.
