Tag: summer

Your Guide to Summer Festivals & Events in Edmonton: 2016 Edition!

It looks like summer is here to stay, and that means it’s time for my listing of summer festivals & events, powered by ShareEdmonton. Below you’ll find dozens of events with a website, dates, and links to social media for each. You’ll also find a link to the event at ShareEdmonton and a link to an iCal for the event. I hope you find this listing as useful as I do.

What the Truck?! at Churchill Square

Festivals

Here’s my list of 50+ festivals and events you can look forward to this summer in and around Edmonton!

Event Dates Links
NUOVA Opera & Music Theatre Festival May 21 – July 3 SE  
TALES Storytelling Festival May 26-29 SE
What the Truck?! May 28/29 & more! SE
Edmonton International Cat Festival May 28 SE
Oliver Community Festival May 28 SE
International Children’s Festival May 31 – June 4 SE
Bikeology Festival (Bike Month) June 1-30 SE
NextGen Month June 1-30 SE
Nextfest June 2-12 SE
Park After Dark June 3 – September 2 SE
Edmonton Craft Beer Festival June 3-4 SE
Edmonton Pride Festival June 3-12 SE
100In1Day Edmonton June 4 SE
Edmonton Pride Parade June 4 @ 11am SE
Bonnie Fest June 4 SE
eek! Comic & Pop Culture Fest June 4-5 SE
Heart of the City Festival June 4-5 SE
Sprouts New Play Festival for Kids June 4-5 SE
Edmonton Filipino Fiesta June 11-12 SE
Improvaganza June 15-25 SE
Latitude 53 Patio Series June 16 – August 25 SE
Mercer Summer Super Party June 17 SE
Beaumont Blues & Roots Festival June 17-19 SE
Porkapalooza BBQ Festival June 17-19 SE
Highlandia Festival June 18 SE
Summer Solstice Festival June 20-28 SE
Freewill Shakespeare Festival June 21 – July 17 SE
Slide the City June 23 SE
The Works Art & Design Festival June 23 – July 5 SE
Found Festival June 23-26 SE
Edmonton International Jazz Festival June 24 – July 3 SE
Feats Festival of Dance June 27 – July 10 SE
Canada Day July 1 SE
Sand on Whyte July 1-10 SE
Historic Festival & Doors Open Edmonton July 3-10 SE
Lawn Summer Nights July 7-28 SE
Whyte Avenue Art Walk July 8-10 SE
Edmonton International Street Performers Festival July 8-17 SE
Seven Music Festival July 9 SE
Taste of Edmonton July 21-30 SE
Canadian Food Championships July 22-24 SE
Interstellar Rodeo July 22-24 SE
K-Days July 22-31 SE
K-Days Parade July 22 @ 10am SE
Servus Heritage Festival July 30 – August 1 SE
Rock’n August August 2-6 SE
Edmonton Folk Music Festival August 4-7 SE
Animethon August 5-7 SE
Cariwest August 5-7 SE
Cariwest Parade August 6 @ 12pm SE
Edmonton Airshow August 6-7 SE
Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival August 11-21 SE
Edmonton Rock Music Festival August 12-13 SE
Edmonton Latin Festival August 13-14 SE
Edmonton Dragon Boat Festival August 19-21 SE
Edmonton Blues Festival August 19-21 SE
Symphony Under the Sky August 26-28 SE
Viva Italia Viva Edmonton August 28 SE
Tour of Alberta September 1-5 SE
SONiC BOOM September 3-4 SE
Kaleido Family Arts Festival September 9-11 SE
Strathearn Art Walk September 10 SE
Edmonton Comic & Entertainment Expo September 23-25 SE
Edmonton Oktoberfest Sept 30 – Oct 1 SE

You can check out a calendar view of festivals here or you can download the iCal feed for your own apps.

Markets

This year I have also decided to include a listing of the many markets you can find around Edmonton! Some are open year-round, but many are just open for the summer, usually from late May/early June to late September/early October.

Event Dates Links
Beverly Towne Farmers’ Market Tuesdays, 4-8pm SE
Miller Crossing Farmers’ Market Tuesdays, 4-8pm
Sundays, 10am-3pm 		SE
Callingwood Farmers’ Market Wednesdays, 2-6pm
Sundays, 10am-3pm 		SE
Castle Downs Farmers’ Market Wednesdays, 4-8pm SE
Sherwood Park Farmers’ Market Wednesdays, 4-8pm SE
Southwest Edmonton Farmers’ Market Wednesdays, 4-7:30pm SE
124 Street Grand Market Thursdays, 4-8pm SE
Millwoods Farmers’ Market Thursdays, 5-8pm SE
Salisbury Farmers’ Market Thursdays, 4-7:30pm SE
Westmount Farmers’ Market Thursdays, 10am-4pm SE
Night Market Edmonton Fridays, 7-11pm SE
YEG Market District Fridays, 4-8pm SE
City Market Downtown Saturdays, 9am-3pm SE
Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market Saturdays, 8am-3pm SE
South Common Farmers’ Market Sat & Sun, 10am-4pm SE
St. Albert Farmers’ Market Saturdays, 10am-3pm SE
Century Park Market Sundays, 10am-3pm SE
French Quarter Grand Market Sundays, 11am-3pm SE

Alberta Strong

Summer came early this year, but the lack of moisture from a relatively mild winter has meant very dry conditions and we have seen some devastating wildfires around the province already. That is very likely to continue throughout the summer (you can get updates here), so you can be sure that many of the summer festivals will be accepting donations to try to help out. We’ll be accepting donations for the food bank at all What the Truck?! events this year, for instance. Check the festival websites before you attend to see how you can contribute.

Of course, a monetary donation is always a great way to help out! You can donate to the Red Cross here to help those affected by wildfires. Or consider donating directly to Edmonton’s Food Bank or to Edmonton Emergency Relief Services. Also be sure to check out the Province’s tips for donating to charities.

Happy Summer in Edmonton

There are of course many more events listed in the ShareEdmonton calendar, so check it out! Have I missed something that should be included? Let me know in the comments and I’ll add it.

Happy summer!

Your Guide to Summer Festivals & Events in Edmonton: 2015 Edition!

For the 2016 version, click here!

It looks like summer is here to stay, and that means it’s time for my listing of summer festivals & events, powered by ShareEdmonton. Below you’ll find dozens of events with a website, dates, and links to social media for each. You’ll also find a link to the event at ShareEdmonton and a link to an iCal for the event. I hope you find this listing as useful as I do.

_DSC5020
What the Truck?! by @DaveFeltham

Festivals

Here’s my list of 50+ festivals and events you can look forward to this summer in and around Edmonton!

Event Dates Links
NUOVA Opera & Music Theatre Festival May 22 – July 4 SE     
What the Truck?! May 23 & more! SE    
International Children’s Festival May 26-30 SE    
Edmonton International Cat Festival May 30 SE   
Oliver Community Festival May 30 SE  
eek! Comic & Pop Culture Fest May 30-31 SE   
Bikeology Festival (Bike Month) June 1-30 SE    
NextGen Month June 1-30 SE   
Creative Age Festival June 4-6 SE   
Mercer Summer Super Party June 5 SE 
Edmonton Craft Beer Festival June 5-6 SE    
Nextfest June 5-15 SE  
Edmonton Pride Festival June 5-14 SE   
Edmonton Pride Parade June 6 @ 11am SE   
Bonnie Fest June 6 SE   
Heart of the City Festival June 6-7 SE    
Sprouts New Play Festival for Kids June 6-7 SE 
Improvaganza June 17-27 SE   
Summer Solstice Festival June 18-21 SE    
Beaumont Blues & Roots Festival June 19-21 SE   
Porkapalooza BBQ Festival June 19-21 SE    
Edmonton International Jazz Festival June 19-28 SE   
The Works Art & Design Festival June 19 – July 1 SE  
Highlandia Festival June 20 SE   
Freewill Shakespeare Festival June 23 – July 19 SE    
Street Jam Festival June 25 SE  
Found Festival June 25-28 SE   
Kick It Up in Little Italy! June 27 SE   
Pets in the Park June 28 SE 
BaconFestYEG June 30 SE   
Canada Day July 1 SE 
Feats Festival of Dance July 1-12 SE    
Edmonton International Street Performers Festival July 3-12 SE   
Seven Music Festival July 4 SE   
Historic Festival & Doors Open Edmonton July 5-12 SE   
Taste of Edmonton July 16-25 SE    
K-Days July 17-26 SE     
K-Days Parade July 17 @ 10am SE     
Interstellar Rodeo July 24-26 SE   
Servus Heritage Festival August 1-3 SE   
Rock’n August August 4-8 SE  
Edmonton Folk Music Festival August 6-9 SE    
Animethon August 7-9 SE     
Cariwest August 7-9 SE   
Cariwest Parade August 8 @ 12pm SE   
Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival August 13-23 SE    
Edmonton Rock Music Festival August 14-15 SE  
Edmonton Dragon Boat Festival August 14-16 SE  
Edmonton Latin Festival August 15-16 SE  
Edmonton Blues Festival August 21-23 SE 
Edmonton Airshow August 22-23 SE     
Symphony Under the Sky August 27-30 SE    
Symphony in the City September 4-5 SE    
SONiC BOOM September 5-6 SE    
Ignite Edmonton Festival September 9-10 SE   
Kaleido Family Arts Festival September 11-13 SE   

You can check out a calendar view of festivals here or you can download the iCal feed for your own apps.

FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015

Edmonton is always a great place for summer sports, but this year is special. Edmonton is one of the official host cities for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015. We’ll host 11 matches this summer from June 6 through July 5, including the kickoff match between Canada and China. There’s a Team Canada Fan March taking place before the game too, from Borden Park to Commonwealth Stadium. In addition to the group matches, we’re hosting two Round of 16 matches, one quarter-final match, one semi-final match, and the third place match. You can see all of the matches on ShareEdmonton.

The City of Edmonton will be showing some of the games on a huge outdoor screen in Centennial Plaza (behind the Stanley Milner Library downtown). Ticket prices range from $20 to $115 and include bus, LRT, or park & ride service to and from the game. There are a few contests you can enter too. For example, Edmonton Tourism is giving away 60 tickets.

Happy Summer in Edmonton

There are of course many more events listed in the ShareEdmonton calendar, so check it out! Have I missed something that should be included? Let me know in the comments and I’ll add it.

Happy summer!

Your Guide to Summer Festivals & Events in Edmonton: 2014 Edition!

For the 2016 edition, click here!

Here’s my listing of summer festivals & events for 2014, powered by ShareEdmonton. Below you’ll find dozens of events with a website, dates, and links to social media for each. You’ll also find a link to the event at ShareEdmonton and a link to an iCal for the event. I hope you find this listing as useful as I do.

Cariwest Parade 2011

Festivals

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get this post completed before all of these events started, so a few have already come and gone. I’ve left them in here though – this’ll be a handy starting point for next year!

Event Dates Links
Vocal Arts Festival May 10 – June 29 SE     
International Children’s Festival May 27-31 SE    
Dreamspeaker’s Film Festival May 28-31 SE   
eek! Comic & Pop Culture Fest May 31 – June 1 SE   
Bikeology Festival June 1-30 SE 
Creative Age FEST June 3-8 SE   
NextGen Month June 4-26 SE   
Nextfest June 5-15 SE  
Edmonton Craft Beer Festival June 6-7 SE    
Edmonton Pride Festival June 6-15 SE  
Edmonton Pride Parade June 7 @ 12pm SE  
Bonnie Fest June 7 SE   
Edmonton International Cat Festival June 7 SE   
Oliver Community Festival June 7 SE  
Heart of the City Festival June 7-8 SE    
What the Truck?! June 13 & more! SE    
Porkapalooza BBQ Festival June 13-15 SE 
Sprouts New Play Festival for Kids June 14-15 SE 
Improvaganza June 18-28 SE   
The Works Art & Design Festival June 19 – July 1 SE  
Summer Solstice Festival June 20-22 SE    
Edmonton International Jazz Festival June 20-29 SE   
Highlandia Festival June 21 SE   
Edmonton International Athletics Festival June 21, July 6, Sept. 12 SE   
Pets in the Park June 22 SE 
Found Festival June 26-29 SE   
Feats Festival of Dance June 28 – July 14 SE    
BaconFestYEG July 4 SE  
Edmonton International Street Performers Festival July 4-13 SE   
Historic Festival & Doors Open Edmonton July 6-13 SE   
Freewill Shakespeare Festival July 9-27 SE   
Taste of Edmonton July 17-26 SE    
K-Days July 18-27 SE    
K-Days Parade July 18 @ 10am SE    
Interstellar Rodeo July 25-27 SE   
Servus Heritage Festival August 2-4 SE   
Edmonton Folk Music Festival August 7-10 SE    
Edmonton Rock Music Festival August 8-9 SE  
Animethon August 8-10 SE     
Cariwest August 8-10 SE   
Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival August 14-24 SE   
Edmonton Blues Festival August 15-17 SE 
Edmonton Dragon Boat Festival August 15-17 SE  
Edmonton Latin Festival August 16-17 SE  
Viva Italia Viva Edmonton August 24 SE  
SONiC BOOM August 29-31 SE    
Country Music Week September 4-7 SE   
E-Town Festival September 11-12 SE   
Kaleido Family Arts Festival September 12-14 SE   

You can check out a calendar view of festivals here or you can download the iCal feed for your own apps. There are some festivals that have happened in previous years that don’t seem to be happening this year (such as Rubaboo and Open Sky Music Festival) so I have left them out for now.

Sports

This year I wanted to highlight the many special sports events that are happening in Edmonton, in addition to Eskimos and FC Edmonton games. It’s an exciting time for track, basketball, and of course, soccer!

Event Dates Links
Edmonton Grads International Classic June 26-28 SE   
U15 & U17 National Basketball Championships July 25-30 SE   
FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Canada August 5-16 SE   
Edmonton Marathon August 23-24 SE   
World Triathlon Grand Final August 26 – September 1 SE   
Canada 55+ Games August 27-30 SE   
Tour of Alberta September 5-7 SE    

There are of course many more events listed in the ShareEdmonton calendar, so check it out! Have I missed something that should be included? Let me know in the comments and I’ll add it.

Happy summer!

Your Guide to Summer Festivals & Events in Edmonton!

For the 2016 edition, click here!

For the last couple of years I have posted a list of all the summer festivals happening here in Edmonton. It’s a lot of work to pull together, but I think the list is quite handy so I have done it once again. Powered by ShareEdmonton, here is a list of the festivals, parades, and a few other notable events you can look forward to over the next few months. Click on the title of a festival to visit its website, click on the ShareEdmonton logo to see the event listing there, and click on the calendar icon to open up an iCal for the festival’s dates.

Edmonton International Athletics Festival May 25 – June 25
Vocal Arts Festival May 25 – July 1
International Children’s Festival May 29 – June 2
Dreamspeakers Film Festival May 30 – June 2
Bikeology Festival June 1-30
Oliver Community Festival June 2
Bonnie Fest June 2
Heart of the City Festival June 2-3
Highlands Street Festival June 3
Rubaboo Arts Festival June 6-17
Nextfest June 7-17
Edmonton Pride Festival June 8-17
Edmonton Pride Parade June 9
Creative Age Festival June 8-10
Open Sky Music Festival June 8-10
Al Fresco June 9
What the Truck?! June 9
Improvaganza June 13-23
The Works Art & Design Festival June 21 – July 3
Summer Solstice Festival June 22-24
Edmonton International Jazz Festival June 22 – July 1
Philippine Arts Festival June 23
Freewill Shakespeare Festival June 26 – July 22
Historic Festival & Doors Open Edmonton July 3-8
Edmonton Triathlon Festival July 6-8
Edmonton International Street Performers Festival July 6-15
Choralies Festival July 8-15
Race Week Edmonton July
Edmonton Indy July 20-22
A Taste of Edmonton July 19-28
Capital EX Parade July 19
Capital EX July 20-29
Interstellar Rodeo July 27-29
Servus Heritage Festival August 4-6
Edmonton Folk Music Festival August 9-12
Animethon August 10-12
Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival August 16-26
Rock Music Festival August 17-18
Edmonton Dragon Boat Festival August 17-19
Edmonton Latin Festival August 18-19
Edmonton Blues Festival August 24-26
Symphony Under the Sky Aug. 31 – Sept. 3
Kaleido Family Arts Festival September 7-9

You can see a listing of all the festivals here, and a calendar view here. You can also add all of the festivals to your calendar with this iCal feed.

If you know of a festival that I have missed, please let me know and I’ll add it. There are some festivals that have happened in previous years such as Rock the Square and Cariwest that will likely happen again, but they don’t have websites with information to confirm that. I’m sure there will also be events that get announced closer to the date (such as additional What the Truck?! events throughout the summer).

Be sure to check out ShareEdmonton for even more upcoming events – there are hundreds of additional listings such as Edmonton Eskimo games, farmers markets, and many more.

Happy summer!

Your Guide to Summer Festivals & Events in Edmonton!

For the 2016 edition, click here!

Exactly a year ago, I posted a listing of as many of the summer festivals happening in Edmonton as I could find. We truly are Festival City – there were 25 festivals in my initial list. Lots of people found it useful, so I thought I’d do the same again this year!

Once again powered by ShareEdmonton, here are a list of 29 festivals you can look forward to over the next few months, complete with iCal feeds and some basic social media information.

You’ll note that each one has a link to ShareEdmonton, where I list the festival dates and locations as accurately as possible. As I get more information I’ll update the listings.

Here’s the information for all festivals:

You can subscribe to that iCal feed using Outlook or your favorite calendar application. In Google Calendar, you can “Add by URL” and just copy/paste the iCal link above. I’m sure there are more festivals happening over the summer that I’ve missed. If your favorite isn’t on the list, let me know. If you subscribe to the iCal feed above, any new festival that gets added to the ShareEdmonton calendar will show up automatically!

Of course, ShareEdmonton has more than just festivals. You can also keep up-to-date on your favorite local sports teams:

There are hundreds of other events in the calendar too (for example, a listing of all the farmers markets). Check out the featured events listing or calendar for some of the highlights (or subscribe using iCal). If you know of an event that isn’t in the calendar, add it!

Happy summer!

Your Guide to Summer Festivals in Edmonton!

For the 2015 edition, click here!

With dozens of festivals happening throughout the year, Edmonton is rightly known as Canada’s Festival City. During the summer in particular, it seems as though there’s a festival of some sort happening every day. I guess that’s because there is!

Here’s a list of 25 festivals you can look forward to over the next three months, complete with iCal feeds, and social media information (see below for an iCal feed for all the festivals):

You’ll note that each one has a link to ShareEdmonton, where I list the festival dates and locations as accurately as possible. Festivals like Creative Age and Improvaganza have really good detail, while others like the Fringe do not (they haven’t released the schedule yet). As I get more information I’ll update the listings. You can also see related tweets for each festival, and very soon, related photos and blog posts too!

Here’s the information for all festivals:

You can subscribe to that iCal feed using Outlook or your favorite calendar application. In Google Calendar, you can “Add by URL” and just copy/paste the iCal link above.

I’m sure there are more festivals happening over the summer that I’ve missed. If your favorite isn’t on the list, let me know. If you subscribe to the iCal feed above, any new festival that gets added to the ShareEdmonton calendar will show up automatically!

Volunteer for one of Edmonton's great festivals

volunteer edmonton Despite another setback for our neighbors to the south this week, summer is definitely on the way and that means lots and lots of festivals here in Edmonton. With over 30 established festivals each year, it’s no surprise that we’re Canada’s Festival City. It should also be no surprise that running 30 festivals requires a lot of time and effort, largely from volunteers:

The estimated number of volunteers required by Edmonton’s festivals is about 5,000 people! Our festivals are a source of community pride and an important element in the quality of life for Edmontonians in the summer – and beyond!

To help attract new volunteers, Volunteer Edmonton is co-hosting a Festival Volunteer Fair next week:

This recruitment event will showcase multiple festivals and will provide members of the community with a “one stop festival volunteer shopping experience”.  We have confirmed that 15 diverse and exciting festivals will be on site, highlighting the volunteer opportunities they have to offer.

I think there are actually over 20 festivals now participating, including the Edmonton International Fringe Festival, A Taste of Edmonton, The Works Art & Design Festival, and the International Street Performers Festival.

The recruitment event takes place on Wednesday, May 14th from 3pm to 7pm at the TransAlta Arts Barns. Here’s a map of the location, and for more information you can call 211 or visit the Volunteer Edmonton site.

Check it out and pass it on!

Edmonton's Capital EX

Post ImageLast night Sharon and I went to Capital EX (formerly Klondike Days, or simply K Days). The ten day festival ends tomorrow, and with rain in the forecast, I would expect attendance numbers for the last two days to be quite low. The rain stayed away yesterday though!

There’s a bunch of new rides this year, and many of my favorites are now gone (like the Drop of Fear and the Zipper). We only went on the ferris wheel, which we tried to time just right, so we’d see the fireworks at the same time. Apparently it was “too windy” though, so the fireworks were cancelled! I wasn’t impressed. We did get the ferris wheel ride for free pretty much though – as we were in line to buy tickets, this guy came up and offered us his card which had 11 credits left on it (we needed twelve, hence the pretty much free) as he had just received a wrist band from someone.

New to the EX this year is Ed Fest, a big concert series with some popular musical acts like Nelly Furtado, and Sam Roberts (who closed the show last night). You can hear the music from almost anywhere, so there’s no need to buy tickets really! The stage is pretty poorly placed though, because it is so loud, it drowns out the nearby Epcor stage which has magicians and other acts. It was really annoying, though the magician we watched made the best of it.

Another thing the organizers did this year was separate the little kid rides into a completely separate section. Very smart move, as it made it much easier to walk through the midway and to the normal rides. Inside the Sportex there was a display from the Art Gallery, which looked kind of neat in the pictures promoting it, but turned out to be really unimpressive in person (it was a river made of jars). There was also the usual stuff like the military displays, and the thousands of people hawking all sorts of crap.

And what trip would be complete without mini-donuts! I absolutely love those things, and they sure were tasty yesterday. I wish there was a mini-donut street vendor near the office – I’d probably be his or her best customer!

Read: Capital EX