Grand River Film Festival By Bus, Part 2

Last time in my downtown adventure to get a haircut, I left off just having discovered the Children's Museum downtown and picked up an excellent (hand-pressed!) Americano from Exhibit Cafe and Lounge. From here, it was time to go hunt down the GIG Music Hall, since I'd never even noticed it before while downtown.

I had just turned around to head down King and I saw the Walper Hotel, where the Grand River Film Festival's Indie Lounge is taking place on Saturday. It's right across the street, which makes sense as the Indie Lounge is being held at both the Walper and the Children's Museum this Saturday and Sunday.

I probably won't be attending the Indie Lounge, but I was curious, so I decided to get up close and personal with the Walper. I don't know if this is where the Indie Lounge is taking place or not, but if anything says "indie film workshops" then this is it.

I took a right on Queen and got this shot of the front entrance, which does a little more justice to the venue. Since the GRFF is supposedly having Departures director Yojiro Takita attending parts of the Indie Lounge, I'd imagine they probably won't be having it in the reno-in-progress lounge.

From the Walper, I turned around and headed west on Queen St. to Duke St.

At Duke, you can take a left and head down to Ontario St. The GIG is located at 137 Ontario Street North, so I was getting pretty close!

Along the way I passed by the parking garage on Duke. I think this is the one that connects right into the back of the Children's Museum through this convoluted system, the way I got into the Andy Warhol exhibit in the winter. I think it was three bucks for the afternoon.

At Duke and Ontario, I turned right and walked up Ontario St. I still couldn't see the GIG and it was getting kind of cold, so I was a little concerned. I still needed to get my hair cut!

A little further up and there it is! It's basically invisible to the naked eye until you are right on top of the sign at the Ontario Tower. No wonder I'd never seen it before.

Even worse is when you finally get up there, there's no indication that there is any kind of venue inside other than the little "Gig Music Hall" sign, just this ominous set of stairs. If you go down the stairs though...

At the end of the tunnel there is a bright light. That's the GIG. If you look inside, you can see it actually looks like a pretty good venue! I tried to snap some pictures but it was way too dark inside.

That was the end of my adventure. It is surprisingly convenient and surprisingly enjoyable to walk around downtown after taking the GRT. In fact, because I hate parking downtown so much I might even give it another go when I see Departures at the Gig on Saturday. There's no way though, that I'm going to take the GRT to Cambridge. Just no way.

I made it to Diverse Barbershop with just enough time to spare and got a solid haircut.