End of The Road

For this year, arts festival Luminato has relocated all its events to the Hearn Generating Station, a decades-old abandoned ruin. On Wednesday, I made my way there for a multimedia show called Song of Extinction. But really, I wanted to see a part of Toronto that I've never seen. To be fair, there are attractions in the area like the Portlands or Cherry Beach that should have provided sufficient motivation.

In any case, local transit stops at Cherry and Unwin so I had to walk the rest of the way along the dirt shoulder with greenery and an abandoned railroad track on one side, with the station's smokestack rising in the distance. It reminded me less of a rural area, and more like the sparsely occupied decommissioned military base near my childhood home.

I had arrived right at 5 pm for the day's opening. Unfortunately, my hope of snagging a walk-in spot at pop-up restaurant Le Pavillon, housed inside the control room, disappeared. A last-minute private party booking scuttled many people's plans. I suppose a feel-good "mission statement" about holding at least 50% of the seats open couldn't compete with well-connected money. After entertaining myself eavesdropping on disgruntled (but justified) complaints, I explored the numerous art exhibit scattered throughout.

But none of them could compare with the station itself, a majestic cathedral full of rusted metals girders and decaying concrete. Only the 10m disco ball could compete in scale. It was finally time for the show. The music, somewhat in a "classical pop" mold, was played by Music in the Barns Chamber Ensemble, members of Tafelmusik Chamber Choir, and VIVA! Youth Singers of Toronto. The libretto evoked the environmental catastrophes of the "Anthropocene". It was accompanied by short clips which one attendee dismissed as "derivative". I wouldn't be quite as harsh, but the videos of slow-motion animals (perhaps to imply some sort of sadness or reproach), industrial activities, and snippets of war were a bit "on the nose".

I was quite famished after the show. But the forlorn Biergarten did not entice. After a long wait for the festival's dedicated shuttle, and an equally long drive through congested traffic, I finally made it back to Union station.