As summer takes on valedictory notes, and August oozes, it is full steam ahead: Fall gala season! And what a season it will be. “In decades of producing galas both large and small, I have not seen such a busy social calendar like this. It is unprecedented as organizations see the need to raise funds.
” This, per , a long-time fixer in Toronto as well as sometime-documentarian, who also has a hand on producing many of those events via his firm BT/A. Together with his frequent design partner, Alison Slight — of those party magicians Candice & Alison — they are up to their necks in planning. Ears, too.
Some of those events, they’re working on in concert; others, separately. And a not-complete list includes the Mount Sinai 100 (with and Michael Bublé on board for the benefit); the annual Art Bash dinner and party for the Art Gallery of Ontario (this year, a celebration of all things colour and modernism); the SOCAN awards gala; the Giller Prize gala; the annual Stratford Gala (all the world’s a stage, all right!); the Heroes Gala, c/o the charity Right to Play; the 20th anniversary edition of Grand Cru, the yearly la-di-da of wine and chefs in support of University Health Network; an anniversary dinner for L’Oreal; and the COC Centre Stage Gala for opera-hounds. Summer? What summer? “Yes, there is a war room with meticulous details,” Avrich confirms when asked.
The key: “daily meetings that review every element in the most exhaustive way to prepare for everyt.