The stages are set for the 2016 iHeart Much Music Video Awards this Sunday night, when hundreds of fans will flock to Toronto’s Queen West neighbourhood to watch the red carpet and the performances.
The show, which will be hosted by supermodel Gigi Hadid, gets underway at 8 p.m. in the parking lot of 299 Queen Street West, located at the corner of Queen and John streets.
Toronto rapper Kardinal Offishall will DJ the event, starting at 8 p.m., as stars arrive for the show.
For views of the stages, Queen Street will remain open to the public. Fans can line up to get a spot on a first come first served basis at the northwest corner of Queen and John streets. The line up to watch the red carpet or the stages begins no earlier than noon.
Presenters for the show will include Pretty Little Liars Ashley Benson and Lucy Hale, Criminal Minds Actor Shemar Moore, model Hailey Baldwin, YouTube star Lilly Singh, author and actress Amber Rose, Canadian hip hop artist SonReal and Toronto actor Robbie Amell.
Brampton’s Alessia Cara will perform at her first Much Music Video Awards alongside fellow Canadians Hedley, Shawn Mendes and Tegan and Sara. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Fifth Harmony and July Talk will hit the stage as well. ‘Close’ singer Nick Jonas will also give a special performance according to MMVA executive producer John Kampilis.
“Nick Jonas came to us with an idea this year that I love because I’ve always wanted to do this and I’ve never had anybody who has wanted to do this,” Kampilis told CTV Toronto last week. “And it took a lot of logistics to figure it out. I can’t tell you what it is. But it’s a performance that’s going to use the crowd in a way that we’ve never used them before.”
The downtown area is expected to be congested. From 8 a.m. on Sunday until 3 a.m. on Monday, Queen Street W. will be closed between McCaul and Beverley Streets. John Street will also be closed from Queen Street W. to Richmond Street until Monday at 3 a.m.
The awards show is set to begin at 9 p.m., airing on CTV.
Take a look at the numbers behind the production of the iHeartRadio MMVAs:
18,000 – Total hours put in by Much staff to make the MMVAs happen
8,300 – Approximate total hours for set-up of stage and red carpet
5,900 – Total feet of barricades used to hold back thousands of screaming fans
955 – Number of people it takes to put on the MMVAs each year
70 – Hours spent on soundcheck to guarantee the best live show possible
47 – Number of photographers who photograph the event
8 – Number of days it takes to build the stage
