A few notes about the Gala and the Aural Transl(oc)ations event. (Better late than never!)

Last year's Gala took place at Hugh's Room and featured Rock Plaza Central, an excellent group of musicians who, however, are arguably Toronto's Least Danceable Band. This year the venue was Revival and the musical act was the Bicycles, who are arguably Toronto's Most Twee Band, but whose upbeat, infectiously bouncy tunes got everyone up and moving. Props to Nick Power, who spent much of the evening energetically swing-dancing near the stage with a succession of partners. At one point he swung Joy Learn so hard her glasses nearly fell off.

The Bicycles were followed by a DJ who kept the crowd moving with mashups of current and retro tunes -- thus adhering to this year's theme, even though he wasn't actually part of the Festival. The dance floor was invaded by a stagette party, the bride-to-be wearing a veil and giant rubber breasts. When I left sometime after midnight, the party was still going strong.

Sunday evening's event was appropriately low-key. Array Studios was a little hard to find, but walking in was like stumbling upon a secret clubhouse full of bongo drums, exotic musical instruments of all kinds, lava lamps, etc.

Aural Transl(oc)ations was a dreamy wash of sound. My one quibble with the event was that it had us all sitting in rows of chairs, as though it was going to be a spectacle, when it was more like a sonic immersion. It might have been nice to have people wander around and experience the sound from different positions instead; or even just scatter the chairs less rigidly around the room.

(Click on the photos to see larger versions.)