With the COVID-19 transmission rates on the rise in Ontario, the summer arts festival season is looking more and more at risk.
While many summer festivals in Ontario have yet to confirm events this summer, Luminato has officially decided against it.
Luminato Festival Toronto has confirmed today that they are rescheduling the planned 2021 summer festival to October. This is the first time in their 15-year history they have postponed the festival.
“The latest restrictions are a new challenge that require us to move the Festival forward to the Fall season to ensure that we can safely deliver a powerful program which shares the artists’ collective vision and offers hope and inspiration,” says Luminato Festival Toronto CEO Celia Smith.
“Moving the Festival forward to October puts the health and safety of artists, production teams, and creators first.”
Luminato Festival is working closely with the city of Toronto. They have engaged the services of a health and safety specialist to ensure all of the artists and staff can work in a safe environment.
The Festival initially cancelled the 2020 season, before later announcing they would take the festival entirely online in June 2020.
By the numbers
Last summer’s move to go online was a significant blow to the festival’s typically strong audience metrics. Luminato’s revenue declined from $6.7M in 2019 to $3.8 M in 2020. The majority of that was government funding, which kept them from sliding into the red.
2019
- Attendance: 291,758
- Tickets: $730,000
- Artists: 659
- Performances: 191
2020
- Attendance: 17,700
- Tickets: $8,805
- Artists: 12
- Performances: 30
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