Local need-no-reason revellers Newmindspace have been working on plans for this Saturday evening for a while now, and their next event - a mobile street party titled Castles in the Sky - is potentially shaping up to be their largest and most exciting event to date.

In terms of sheer numbers, there's a chance that Capture the Flag 2006 in Toronto and their second NYC pillow fight will have attracted more people.

I would also hesitate to call this their most ambitious project, simply because I remember the ridiculous amount of work they put into trying to create enough artificial snow in Trinity-Bellwoods to have a snowy playday in the midst of an unseasonable winter (sadly, this was mostly in vain).

But from what I've heard of the plans for this year's street party, it sounds like it will be much more creative and exciting than last year's (Flight of Fancy), and last year's was definitely one of the most fun and most wonderful things I've been lucky enough to take part in.

I don't want to spill any beans that I haven't seen already made public online, and I wouldn't want to post anything that I didn't know for sure was winding up in the final plans and wasn't just a bit of a brainstorm, so I'm going to hold my tongue on specifics.

If you aren't yet familiar with last year's event, it consisted of a meet-up in Queen's Park, a brief full-train-length subway party from Museum to Union, a walk from Union to the Esplanade where drum troupe Samba Elegua joined the crowd and acted as a great marching band. From there, everyone proceeded towards the Distillery, stopping in a park for some firespinning and random play, and then followed a soundsystem truck (well, soundsystem wheeltrans bus) down to Cherry Beach for a drum circle and beach party.

As far as this year goes, I will say that in addition to the projects Newmindspace have been working on for the event, they have been collaborating with a number of groups - Überkids, Streets Are For People, Samba Elegua, Robotpilot and a good number more - and the spectacles and activities of the street party alone will be fantastic.

However, and this is something that this year will definitely have over last year, more planning has gone into looking at how to incorporate other exciting things happening the same night in the city, rather than strictly being a self-contained roving fest. (If you're itching for clues, you could take a look at what else is going down in the city the same night that Newmindspace might have a taste for.)

Toronto is a very active place this time of year, and Newmindspace et al have opted for taking advantage of that rather than simply being one part of it. The only thing I can imagine that'd top the overwhelming energy of last year's street party could be syncing that energy with the city's and creating some really beautiful synergy... and from what I can see, things are well on their way in that direction.

Anyone and everyone interested is enthusiastically invited to meet at the southeast (dominoes) corner of Bloor and Spadina at 7:07 pm on 07/07/07, and bringing costumes and any other fun things is highly encouraged. Bring TTC fare!

Photo by JosĂŠ Romelo Lagman from Flight of Fancy