Luminato Festival has revealed the lineup for the Slaight Music Series on the Luminato Lounge Stage at The Festival Hub. Showcasing Canadian talent live every day on the Luminato Lounge Stage, the Slaight Music Series is the platform to get to know up-and-coming Canadian talent. Open daily from noon until the wee hours, The Festival Hub will always be buzzing with free and ticketed concerts and events, food programs, and even more!
“The Luminato Festival needs to be a membrane and a centrifuge for artistic talent and cultural movements of our times. It needs to be open as well to a younger generation of artists to provide a platform for them to display their talent. I hope that this is what we can achieve with the Slaight Music Series on our second stage, the Luminato Lounge Stage, at the Festival Hub on David Pecaut Square. It will give artistic life to the square for much of the day around the concerts and performances on the main festival stage,” said Luminato Festival Artistic Director Jorn Weisbrodt.
“We are excited to continue our musical collaboration with Luminato in establishing the Slaight Music Series. Audiences will experience some of the best established and emerging Canadian talent we have been championing. What better place to be, then at the Luminato Lounge Stage at The Festival Hub,” says Derrick Ross, President of Slaight Music.
Friday, June 6 @ 7PM – Eva Avila
Past Canadian Idol champ and eOne Music Canada pop recording artist extraordinaire, Eva Avila, is pumped and primed to tackle her musical future, and she’s got the best new songs of her career to prove it on her brand new EP, Dream You Better.
Saturday, June 7 @ 7PM – More or Les
With five critically-acclaimed releases, over a decade of performances & international touring, and a feature with UK Hip Hop band The Herbaliser, MC / Producer / DJ More Or Les is a Hip Hop triple threat. His over a decade-long performance career includes such highlights as performances at SXSW, Halifax Pop Explosion, Pop Montréal Festival, ManifesTO Cultural Arts Festival, Under Pressure Festival, Luminato Festival, Harbourfront Centre, among many, many others.
Sunday, June 8 @ 6PM – Theo Tams and @ 7PM – Molly Thomason
Singer, songwriter, trumpet and piano player, and Canadian Idol winner, Theo Tams will shortly be releasing a six-song EP, the follow-up to his 2009 debut album Give It All Away. His charity duet with Ali Slaight “Do You Hear What I Hear?” was a number one AC hit, and he has devoted himself to other public service work, including a trip to Afghanistan in 2010 to perform for Canadian troops serving on the front lines.
At 19, Molly Thomason is already a touring vet with multiple award nominations and finalist slots in the John Lennon Songwriting and International Song Contests. She won the 2011 Canadian Folk Award for Young Performer, the “She’s the One” competition at the 2012 Ottawa Bluesfest, and the Emerging Artist Series at Milwaukee Summerfest. In 2013, Youth In Motion named Molly one of Canada’s Top 20 Under 20 for her work as a human rights activist.
Monday, June 9 @ 6PM – Liz Coyles and @ 7PM – Luanda Jones
Liz Coyles has won multiple singing competitions and top spot in the inaugural Slaight Music “It’s Your Shot” songwriting competition. Liz’s winning song “Butterflies,” went on to chart in the Top Ten Nationally and was featured on episodes of both Degrassi and Beauty & the Beast. Liz has been honing her songwriting craft, co-writing in the UK, U.S. and here at home and will be featuring several new songs during her Festival appearance.
Brazilian singer/songwriter Luanda Jones has been mesmerizing audiences for over a decade with her fluid vocals, touching lyricism and enveloping charm. Her style, rooted in the suave, jazz-inflected and rhythmically traditional moods of leading Brazilian musical exports like João Gilberto and Gilberto Gil, has swelled greatly of late to encompass the more rambunctious sounds of funk and afrobeat, with a few electronic experimentations thrown in for good measure.
Tuesday, June 10 @ 6PM – Nick Sherman and @ 7PM – Digging Roots
Nick Sherman is a singer-songwriter from Northern Ontario who spent his childhood traveling between his birthplace of Sioux Lookout, the remote First Nation community of Weagamow Lake and North Caribou Lake trap line. His songs are earnest and thoughtful rooted in a contemporary-folk sound. The sentiments of his latest album are broad as the songs cover the best and worst days of the last 4 years.
The JUNO-winning, genre-blurring, Digging Roots have been living their life on the road with touring North America, Europe, and Australia. Musical partners Raven and ShoShona are balancing fairytale good fortune, old fashion hard work, and the creative chemistry to make a go of it. Their new album ‘For the Light’ brings global-blues infused songs with a Canadian summer tour.
Wednesday, June 11 @ 6PM – Jessica Mitchell and @ 7PM – Liam Titcomb
Jessica Mitchell was handed a guitar at 13 and began writing songs a year later. She developed a revelatory and charismatic performance style and a reputation for writing honest and cliché-free music. When her identity as an artist was tested it became clear for the Toronto native, that her true destiny was in country music. Now in development with Slaight Music and RGK Entertainment she is establishing her career as an artist and a songwriter.
Second-generation singer-songwriter, Liam Titcomb recently released his 3rd album ‘CICADA’ on Nettwerk Music. No stranger to the Luminato Festival, Titcomb had the honour of playing Joni Mitchell’s birthday celebration, “A Portrait in Song”, at Massey Hall alongside greats like Herbie Hancock and Rufus Wainwright.
Thursday, June 12 @ 6PM – Jill Godin and @ 7PM – Quique Escamilla
At the young age of 20, Jill Godin has already demonstrated formidable songwriting instincts. After winning Slaight Music’s 2013 “It’s Your Shot” songwriting contest, Jill is hard at work, writing and recording her debut EP with some of Canada’s most acclaimed writers and producers. The Slaight and Universal Music teams are very excited to have Jill premiere these songs live at this year’s Luminato Festival, even before her EP is released.
Quique Escamilla fuses traditional Mexican musical styles such as ranchera and Huapango with other Latin American rhythms, rock and reggae—creating his own unique ‘Music of the Americas’. He delivers passionate lyrics that touch on issues like indigenous rights, sustainability, and that tackle any form of oppression.
Friday, June 13 @ 7PM – Lemon Bucket Orkestra
From Toronto to New York, Budapest to Berlin, audiences around the world are hailing to the Lemon Bucket Orkestra as Folk revolutionaries. Since their birth 4 years ago, the group has grown from its initial quartet of buskers to a 16 piece guerrilla-folk force with an army of grass roots followers and mainstream fans at home and abroad.
Saturday, June 14 @ 7PM – The Arsenals
The Arsenals have kept audiences “Skanking” since 1994 with their signature blend of authentic Jamaican Ska, Rockysteady, Reggae and “Ska-terized” Pop music. This 6-piece Toronto based band features “Comfort” on lead vocals and the blonde headed bugle boy “Dizzy Minott” on slide trombone. Please wear comfortable shoes…”Ska-tisfaction” is guaranteed.
Sunday, June 15 @ 5:30PM – Stacey Kay
Stacey Kay is a dynamic triple threat artist set to release her debut EP after spending most of last year on the road with the National Broadway Tour of “Godspell”. Stacey has more side projects than one can imagine, including an a capella group called Eh440 and a commitment to spreading positive messages at high schools throughout Ontario. Check out Stacey’s groundbreaking new video “Take a Ride,” online and everywhere this summer!
The Festival Hub at David Pecaut Square will be a fully licensed site and the home of the Luminato Lounge featuring Parts & Labour. The Luminato Lounge will embody the essence of Parts & Labour restaurant in Parkdale with a strong emphasis on bringing rustic comfort food to the Festival Hub – unique and accessible food and cocktails that are sure to excite all palates. The Luminato Lounge, located at 55 John Street, will be open every day of the Festival from 12 noon ‘til late! Luminato Lounge Beverage partners: Mill Street Brewery, Constellation Brands, glaceau vitaminwater
“I hope that the Festival Hub, a fully licensed environment transformed by Cuban artists Los Carpinteros into Cardboard Beach, an urban imagination of a coastal beach with beach chairs, cabanas, umbrellas and all, will become a daytime, after work and evening destination for those in Toronto who just want to have a good time out in public and enjoy their city,” said Weisbrodt.
Info at a glance
2014 LUMINATO FESTIVAL
The Slaight Music Series on the Luminato Lounge Stage
THE FESTIVAL HUB AT DAVID PECAUT SQUARE
55 John Street
Open daily from noon
All events are FREE unless otherwise indicated
Friday, June 6
7PM Eva Avila
Saturday, June 7
7PM More or Les
Sunday, June 8
6PM Theo Tams
7PM Molly Thomason
Monday, June 9
6PM Liz Coyles
7PM Luanda Jones
Tuesday, June 10
6PM Nick Sherman
7PM Digging Roots
Wednesday, June 11
6PM Jessica Mitchell
7PM Liam Titcomb
Thursday, June 12
6PM Jill Godin
7PM Quique Escamilla
Friday, June 13
7PM Lemon Bucket Orkestra
Saturday, June 14
7PM The Arsenals
Sunday, June 15
5:30PM Stacey Kay
For more info: luminatofestival.com
Twitter: @Luminato
Facebook: Luminato Festival
Instagram: @LuminatoFestival