Toronto: IIFA 2011 destination

Toronto is all set to host the IIFA Awards in June. This Bollywood link gives its tourism office a reason to promote the city's busy calendar.

The big news is that Toronto will host the IIFA Awards on June 23-25. The bad news is that the tickets to Bollywood's glitziest international show sold out on the first day when they went up for grabs. You still have a sliver of a chance, though. Log on towww.seetorontonow.com, Tourism Toronto's information-loaded web site, leave your email address behind, keep your fingers and toes crossed for a leftover ticket.

Even if you can't get tickets to the awards show, Michele Simpson, Tourism Toronto's spokesperson, said during the course of a dinner in the city with a group of select mediapersons, there's a lot to see and do in the city that was visited by 60,000 Indians last year (that was a 26.5 per cent jump over the 2009 figure). This year, without doubt, is Toronto's Bollywood year.

Toronto homeowner and Tourism Canada brand ambassador Akshay Kumar makes his debut this year as an international producer with Breakaway, an ice hockeycentred, cross-cultural comedy starring scriptwriter Vinay Virmani, Russell Peters and Anupam Kher, and shot entirely in the Indian star's second city.

The city also features in Thank You, Anees 'Singh Is Kinng' Bazmee's next film with Akshay Kumar and Sonam Kapur in the lead roles. When Thank You gets released in April 2011, Toronto hopes to have its big Bollywood moment (just as Egypt did when Singh Is Kinng cranked up box-office records).

For Simpson, a second-generation Canadian (her parents are from Jamaica), Toronto's charm goes beyond its newly acquired Bollywood stardust. "The city celebrates all cultures and all ways of life," Simpson said, adding: "There's so much choice, so much more acceptance."

No destination reflects this diversity as completely as Kensington Market, a bustling neighbourhood with narrow lanes, vintage clothes stores, street musicians and restaurants, described as "a virtual trip around the world".

Toronto's culture of acceptance comes alive at The Gay Village on the intersection of Church Street and Wellesley Street at the core of the downtown. It has grown as a magnet for LGBT tourists, who have internationally emerged as significant spenders of tourism dollars.

Tornoto's calendar brims over with cultural showcases, but topping it is the Luminato, a citywide celebration of the arts, literature, film and food, which turns five this June 11-20.

Simpson said, "The majority of the programming is freely accessible across the city." This year, though, the top draw of this series of "accident encounters with art" is One Thousand and One Night, a theatrical production presented by the British Shakespearean, Tim Supple, who last wowed audiences across India with his six-language desi take on Midsummer Night's Dream. It's one of the very few programmes with ticketed entry.

The other notable features of the city's crowded calendar are the Maharaja: The Splendour of India's Royal Courts at the Art Gallery of Ontario (on till April 11; entry free if you're 25 years of less); a Tim Burton exhibition set up by the Toronto International Film Festival Lightbox (on till April 17; tickets must be booked two weeks in advance); the Summerlicious food festival, where over 100 restaurants offer three-course meals at pocket friendly rates (July 8-24; lunch: C$10-15; dinner: C$25-35); and Nuit Blanche (October 1; free entry), the world's only sunset to sunrise art showcase, where galleries and museums remain open all night for an unbelievable experience. Very few cities in the world pack in so much into a year.

Like a vintage Bollywood film, Toronto has a little bit of something for everyone. It's forever in a state of electric excitement.