Sunny Tunes

Vince Talotta/Toronto Star

Parachute Club front woman Lorraine Segato plays to a crowd at Luminato's Queen West Celebration on McCaul on Saturday.

There was a ton of free music within blocks of each other Saturday afternoon. There was the Scottish-themed fest in Yonge and Dundas Square, the On the One Funk Festival in Nathan Phillips square and the Queen West Celebration on McCaul at OCAD.

First I caught the fine fiddles of Cape Breton’s Barra MacNeils in YD square. It was a good afternoon performance, with no signs of wilting from the veteran group, although perhaps a bit from the audience. They did a nice a capella version of “Coal Town Road” and attempted to get the audience to call and response going with a chorus of “howdy-howdy-hoo” in an other song, but the sing-a-long was pretty weak.

Over at the Queen West fest, Alsop’s stilted shoebox provided a nice bit of shade for the audience and performers in the late afternoon.

“We’re here to celebrate this street, this place, this time, this culture… revolution style,” said Lorraine Segato, before launching into “Freedom Song,” with reconstituted Parachute Club — featuring four original members and a bunch of friends, family and special guests.

The band sounded great — nice and summery, but surprisingly tight as well. Even better, they looked like they were having a great time, which really was rather infectious.

Eyeballing the crowds, I’d say that YD Square looked like it had the most people, but all three events were pretty well attended.

-Raju Mudhar

Dance, dance to the music in your head

Light on your feet is going to become light on your ears.

The extensive Luminato dance party programming taking place in Yonge and Dundas Square has added some last-minute programming, with a Silent Disco scheduled for Saturday evening starting at 12 a.m. until 2 p.m.

Here's how it works: Participants are asked to download a two-hour set by New York deejay AC Slater. (Scroll down here to download the tunes).

Put the music on your iPod (or music player of choice). Gather at Yonge/Dundas Square, put on your headphones and hit play at midnight. Then everyone can dance together, but in silence.

Of course, you can provide your own music as well, but part of the fun is the solitary-but-not-alone aspect of the group dancing together. There was a Silent Disco as part of the Yonge St. Festival a few years ago, but the it was originally conceived in British music festival Glastonbury, as a response to noise restriction bylaws.

That's the same reason it's here. Noise bylaws say that the Yonge Dundas Square concerts have to be finished by 11 p.m.

-Raju Mudhar