Fall gala season is going to be hectic

As summer takes on valedictory notes, and August oozes, it is full steam ahead: Fall gala season!

- SHINAN GOVANI

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 Barry Avrich, 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 Martin Short 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 anniver sary 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 everything from the guest experience to the often A-list needs of those performing" (he once had to drive to Buffalo to get Diana Ross her fave ice cream).