Share your #SmilingSelfies with us as you enjoy Edmonton’s summer festivals! Just post your photo with the hashtag #SmilingSelfies and it will appear on our live blog!
EDMONTON – Festival season is once again underway in Edmonton. From Pride to K-Days, Canada Day to the Edmonton International Fringe Festival, there’s no shortage of activities to partake in this summer.
Here’s a list of what festivals are happening when and where in and around Edmonton this summer (feel free to bookmark it for your convenience).
June 6 – 15: Edmonton Pride Festival
The annual Pride Parade will be held in the downtown core Saturday, June 7 at noon. It showcases the unity and diversity of the LGBTQ community and its allies. You can see the route here.
June 18 – 28: Improvaganza
This event is proudly sponsored by Global Edmonton. Nightly shows of improv comedy from around the world, stand-up comics, sketch artists, music and more will entertain at this year’s Improvaganza Public workshops with world-class improv instructors also available!
June 19 – July 1: The Works Art & Design Festival
This event is proudly sponsored by Global Edmonton. The Works International Visual Arts Society produces The Works Art & Design Festival which attracts artists and patrons from around the world, boosting the energy and imagination of downtown Edmonton at the start of every summer. The Works is a free event that draws an audience representing all ages and interests, offering over 200 exciting exhibits and special events to the public.
June 20 – 29: Edmonton International Jazz Festival
This event is proudly sponsored by Global Edmonton. The Edmonton International Jazz Festival has sounds to suit every taste throughout its 10-day musical celebration. JazzFest features more than 50 acts from Edmonton, Canada and around the world in Churchill Square, the Yardbird Suite, the Old Strathcona Performing Arts Centre and stages across the city.
June 21: ZooFest 6:30 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.(Valley Zoo)
Experience the Edmonton Valley Zoo and all it has to offer after hours. From animal encounters to food and wine sampling there’s a little something for everyone to enjoy. All proceeds go to supporting the next phase of development – Nature’s Wild Backyard.
July 1: Canada Day (Events throughout Edmonton)
July 4 – 13: Edmonton International Street Performers Festival (Sir Winston Churchill Square)
This event is proudly sponsored by Global Edmonton. The Edmonton International Street Performers Festivals offers 1,500 outdoor performances by a cast of international street artists, face-painters and rovers. There are also Be Your Own Busker workshops and Kids’ World activities, daily Troupe du Jour family group shows and indoor Late Night Madness adult cabarets. With all of this going on, you’re bound to find a smile or two at the festival in Sir Winston Churchill Square.
Global Edmonton will be watching for your #SmilingSelfies on Twitter and Instagram throughout the festival!
Click here to look at our #SmilingSelfies live blog.
July 9 – 27: Freewill Shakespeare Festival (University of Alberta’s Myer Horowitz Theatre)
This event is proudly sponsored by Global Edmonton. Now in it’s 26th season, the Freewill Shakespeare Festival brings Edmonton a new kind of summer ‘Shakespeareience’ with the move indoors to the Myer Horowitz Theatre. This year the festival presents a comedic favourite: The Taming of the Shrew.
July 17 – 26: A Taste of Edmonton (Sir Winston Churchill Square)
With all of the city’s best food and drinks gathered together in Sir Winston Churchill Square, this festival will be sure to hit your sweet spot. Beer or wine, sweet or savoury, gluten or gluten-free, folk music or jazz – whatever you fancy, you will be able to find it at Taste of Edmonton 2014!
July 18: K-Days Parade 10 a.m. -12 noon (Broadcast live and streamed online by Global News)
July 18 – 27: K-Days (Northlands)
K-Days is once again proudly sponsored by Global Edmonton. K-Days is Edmonton’s hottest summer event featuring live bands, family entertainment, midway rides, shopping, exhibits and a nightly fireworks display.
August 2 – 4: Servus Heritage Festival (Hawrelak Park)
This event is proudly sponsored by Global Edmonton. The Servus Heritage Festival 2014 will mark the 39th annual of this premier three-day showcase of Canada’s vibrant multicultural heritage. With 60 pavilions representing over 85 cultures, there will be delicious cultural food, wonderful creative performances, crafts, artwork, clothing and plenty of opportunities to chat with people eager to talk about their cultural roots and their communities in Canada. Come savour the sights, sounds and aromas from around the world in beautiful Hawrelak Park!
Click here to check out the 2014 menu!
August 7 – 10: Edmonton Folk Music Festival (Gallagher Hill)
Slip into a low lawn chair and take in the backdrop of the city skyline and the grassy slope down Gallagher Hill towards the main stage nestled in a natural amphitheatre, the epi-centre of a much-anticipated annual August homage to all things musical. An eclectic line-up of bands from around the globe mixes up folk, Celtic, bluegrass, blues, gospel, roots, world beat, even some alternative rock. The event’s vibe is unique, as anyone who’s been will tell you, with jam sessions, lesser known acts, children’s music and workshops occupying several smaller stages, and rumours drifting of big-time bands joining up for epic surprise musical unions.
August 8 – 9: Rock Music Festival (Hawrelak Park Amphitheatre)
The Rock Music Festival showcases some of the biggest acts in local and national classic rock. Now in its fourth year, the festival includes Burton Cummings, Colin James, Trooper, Chilliwack, Doug and The Slugs, David Gogo and Gibson Block.
August 8 – 10: Cariwest Caribbean Arts Festival
Glitzy parade costumes, dancing in the streets to island rhythms and exotic cuisine transform downtown Edmonton into a lively Caribbean outpost. Jive along with a glittering procession of 500 flamboyantly costumed performers and masqueraders following the carnival beat of steel pan bands, Calypso tunes and Soca music as the Grand Costume Parade winds down Edmonton’s city streets. The three-day admission-free Caribbean Arts Festival has been bringing the tropics to Edmonton each August for three decades.
August 14 – 24: Edmonton International Fringe Festival (Old Strathcona)
The Fringe is proudly sponsored by Global Edmonton. The 33rd Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival is time-tripping to the ’70s with ‘Fringed and Confused!.’ Fringe Theatre Adventures has donned its bell-bottoms, pulled up the tube socks and wistfully gone back to the era of record stores and jumpsuits. Get swept up in what it means to be fringed and confused with a throwback to our early years. Watch for Official Fringe Reviewer, Todd James, nightly on Global Edmonton and post your #smilingselfie on Twitter and Instagram throughout the festival!
August 15 – 17: Edmonton Dragon Boat Festival (North Saskatchewan River)
The Edmonton Dragon Boat Festival promotes Dragon Boat racing for fun, sport and recreation. The festival showcases Asian and multiculturalism in Edmonton. Grab your spot in a boat or come cheer on the participants as they rip down the mighty North Saskatchewan River.
August 15 – 17: Edmonton Blues Festival (Hawrelak Park)
Top acoustic and electric blues acts from around the world rock the house at Western Canada’s premier blues event. The festival brings three days of the best in blues featuring Canadian and International Grammy, Juno and Blues Music award winners.
August 16: Canadian Derby 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. (Northlands)
The Canadian Derby is the biggest event in Western Canadian racing.
August 27 – 30: Canada 55+ Games (Festival Place, Millennium Place, Strathcona Centre)
The games are proudly sponsored by Global Edmonton. The Canada 55+ Games is a nation-wide program that promotes physical, spiritual and mental wellness among Canadians 55 years of age and older. The 2014 Canada 55+ Games features competition in 24 different events.
August 29 – 31: Edmonton Symphony Orchestra – Symphony in the City (Churchill Square, Kinsmen Park)
Get a taste of great music – from classical to pop to just plain fun – in the great outdoors during the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra’s Symphony in the City. Savour the sounds of internationally-renowned and innovative Edmonton Symphony Orchestra as it delivers its popular annual Labour Day weekend festival. Symphony in the City offers something for everyone: a Disney adventure, a Celtic collaboration, and monumental classical works.
September 12 – 14: Kaleido Family Arts Festival (Alberta Avenue)
The event is proudly sponsored by Global Edmonton. Alberta Avenue comes alive with the Kaleido Family Arts Festival – a free arts event featuring music, dance, theatre, film, literary and visual arts with performances in extraordinary places.
September 25 – October 4: Edmonton International Film Festival
The film festival is proudly sponsored by Global Edmonotn. For 10 days each autumn, Edmontonians feast on all things cinematic. It’s a veritable buffet of the best new indie filmmaking from around the globe The schedule includes 55 feature-length slots, and more than 100 short films programmed into feature-length packages. Watch for Todd James’ film festival reviews nightly on Global Edmonton!
For more information on other events happening in and around Edmonton, visit Global’s ‘Out There’ webpage.
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