Nuit Rose is back for its fourth year showcasing the best of LGBTQ art and performance, and this year, we’re adding a second night to showcase works and performances from Toronto and beyond. On June 16 and 17, Nuit Rose showcases, highlights, and celebrates LGBTQ* art works that seeks to answer the question “What Lies between Venus and Mars?” Opening launch party with reception and group exhibition June 14th, 7pm to 11pm, at Daniels Spectrum 585 Dundas Street East.

The festival kicks off on Friday, June 16 at with the Toronto debut of Wiggle; a wearable art and performance festival presented in partnership with Wiggle creator Michael Venus and Montreal’s Never Apart. The annual wearable art and  performance extravaganza lands in Toronto on Friday June 16th at The 519 and Barbara Hall Park, featuring some of the city’s most innovative artists, designers and performers! Wiggle is a wearable art and performance extravaganza that invites artists and designers to create fantasy wigs and headpieces that are then worn in the fashion element of the avant-garde variety show. Combined with innovative performances and a fashion-forward crowd, this show is an out-of-this-world event celebrating all things ‘Wig’. This is the first time Wiggle will be held outside with Mother Nature and the addition of a Beer Garden.

Be sure to check out the RuPaul: Evolution of an Icon photo exhibition.  Opening Wed. June 14th 7pm-10pm until Thurs. June 29, 2017 at Daniel’s Spectrum – 585 Dundas Street East, and also Thursday, June 15th 7pm-11pm until Sun. June 18th, 8pm at 562 Church Street.

“Who is RuPaul? She is quintessentially herself, her own  invention, an icon of elegance, inspiring generations of LGBTQ people in their quest to end the narrow and oppressive gender identity enforced by mainstream society. Thirty years before RuPaul won her Emmy and six years before her break-out hit (Larry Tee’s Supermodel), she had already established herself as one of the top hosts and performers in the New York club scene. Her look was never static, always changing and mutating. She was wild and  wacky before she was a slinky supermodel. Simone is fascinated by RuPaul because she emanates a fierce confidence and charisma, promoting her fashion  glamour as a vehicle of authentic personal liberation. She is living proof of a creative space between the extremes of masculine and feminine, a space where everyone can explore the dimensions of their true selves. RuPaul expresses her vitality best in her own words: “You’re born naked; everything else is drag.”

 

Nuit Rose’s main showcase on Saturday, June 17, takes place at galleries and venues across central Toronto, with works on Church Street, and a home base at the 519 Church Street Community Centre. Saturday night also features Nuit Rose’s third annual Light Parade, which begins at sunset and starts from the James Canning Gardens. The Light Parade is the first parade of Pride Month, and is generously sponsored by Pride Toronto.

Nuit Rose is FREE and open to all. Attendees will encounter art that shifts perceptions, paradigms, identities, and realities. Witness two nights of adventure and celebration, reflecting all things that happen between dusk and dawn, and between Venus and Mars. Our 2016 festival was our largest and best-attended yet, and we’re expecting the 2017 festival to be out of this world.

The Nuit Rose Art & Performance festival is presented by the Throbbing Rose Collective, a volunteer group of artists, curators, producers and art advocates.

Nuit Rose June 16 and 17, 207 – Various locations throughout Toronto

About the Author

Bryen Dunn is a freelance journalist with a focus on travel, lifestyle, entertainment, and hospitality. He has an extensive portfolio of celebrity interviews with musicians, actors, and other public personalities. He enjoys discovering delicious eats, tasting spirited treats, and being mesmerized by musical beats. Reach out - bryen@thebuzzmag.ca