TORONTO -- Canadian pop star Nelly Furtado, American singer-songwriter St. Vincent and English actress Charlotte Rampling will discuss their careers at this year's Luminato Festival.
The festival runs June 19 to 28 and this year is "about extremes," said artistic director Jorn Weisbrodt, in announcing Luminato's full lineup, which was revealed on Wednesday evening.
The fest's events will range from an arena-scale multi-disciplinary project with 1,000 performers to intimate solo shows.
"It's about gigantic ideas and very intimate ideas and that stretch between those two," Weisbrodt said in an interview.
Along with their TimesTalks Luminato speaking events, Furtado and St. Vincent will perform in the previously announced "Contemporary Color," a colour guard event that will have its world premiere at the Air Canada Centre.
Other artists involved in "Contemporary Color," masterminded by Talking Heads founding member David Byrne, include Ad-Rock and Money Mark of Beastie Boys fame.
Meanwhile, Rampling and French cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton will perform the works of Benjamin Britten and Sylvia Plath in "The Night Dances." It's part of a series of one-person shows called "7 Monologues."
Other shows in that series include "Who Killed Spalding Gray?" by Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor, and "Spell to Bring Lost Creatures Home" by musician Christine Fellows and visual artist Shary Boyle.
Another large-scale event set for the fest is the previously announced "Apocalypsis."
Billed as an "epic musical voyage," the show is written by acclaimed Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer and will feature 1,000 performers, including Tony Award-winning actor Brent Carver and Polaris Prize-winning throat singer Tanya Tagaq.
Weisbrodt said "Apocalypsis" has been in the works for three years and was the starting point for the 2015 fest.
"That project is really so much about what this festival is and could and should be doing," he said.
Other events in the lineup include the world premiere of the interactive film "My One Demand." Viewers can watch as it's filmed live -- in a single, continuous shot -- and streamed online and in select Cineplex cinemas nationwide.
The film from UK-based artist group Blast Theory will follow a cast of seven, including Julian Richings, as they journey across Toronto to tell a story of unrequited love.
Luminato's opening weekend will include the Canadian premiere of the innovative, late-night Unsound Festival.
Called Unsound Toronto at Luminato, it will fuse experimental and classical music in a series of projects at the Hearn Generating Station. Among those projects is Montreal electronic musician Tim Hecker's world premiere of "Ephemera," which is said to bring scent and sound together.
Weisbrodt said he hopes that by using the Hearn, the city will see its potential to become "a world-class institution."
"It's of such a scale and dimension that is just breathtaking," Weisbrodt said of the Hearn. "You could put the Statue of Liberty upright in that building."
The Luminato lineup also includes "El pasado es un animal grotesco" by Argentinean writer-director Mariano Pensotti, which is described as "a multi-layered mega-fiction performed by four actors on an enclosed stage that rotates like a clock."
The Festival Hub in David Pecaut Square will feature a light installation by Brazilian artist Regina Silveira and a fully-licensed green space by designer Janet Rosenberg.
Weisbrodt said the Festival Hub will be much different than in previous years, with more of a community vibe and 24-hour access, acting as the "largest backyard in Toronto."
Also in David Pecaut Square will be a new indoor venue called the Festival Shed, which will include the festival's debut cabaret series. That series will see DJ Kid Koala allowing audience members to act as his orchestra at stations equipped with turntables, effects boxes and vinyl records.
Other performers in the Luminato lineup include Broken Social Scene's Jason Collett, whose "Basement Revue" will offer a mystery lineup of Canadian literary and musical talent.
