Festival City- Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

When asked if they have ever heard of Edmonton, Alberta Canada, most people will say that Edmonton has a large shopping mall and a hockey team. Although Edmonton is known for having the world’s largest shopping mall, West Edmonton Mall, and their hockey team, the Edmonton Oilers, have won their share of Stanley Cups, there is much more to the city than shopping and hockey.

In 2007 Edmonton was named the cultural capital of Canada, in part for the number of festivals they have each year. With over 70 festivals a year, Edmonton is certainly a city of festivals.

There are several music festivals held every summer in Edmonton to appealing to music lovers of all kinds. There is a Folk Festival, a Blues Festival, a Jazz Festival and even a classical music festival, Symphony under the Stars.

Edmonton’s Fringe Theater Festival is rated as the second best in the world, behind the Edinburgh Fringe. The Alberta Dance Festival is the largest dance festival in Western Canada. There are also two film festival, Global Visions and the Edmonton International Film Festival. If you are into the classics attend a performance at the River City Shakespeare Festival.

There are several literary festivals including the Stroll of Poets, LitFest Canada’s only creative non fiction festival, and the Roar, a spoken words festival and a story telling festival held in the fall at Fort Edmonton Park.

Art festivals dominate the summer scene, The Works, is the largest of the festivals with cutting edge art on display throughout the city during the summer. The Whyte Avenue Art Walk is three days of art on Whyte Avenue at Edmonton’s hip South Side.

There are festivals for children including the Street Performers festival and the Silly Summer Parade held every July 1st on Whyte Avenue in conjunction with other Canada activities.

There is an Ice festival held every winter on Whyte Avenue, a history festival, Edmonton and Athabaska Historic Festival and several food festivals including Taste of Edmonton featuring food from some of Edmonton’s favorite restaurants in an outdoor festival setting. There are two major cultural festivals, Heritage days, a three day event that features food and entertainment from cultures around the world and Cariwest, a Caribbean arts festival. The Dragon Boat Festival puts serious dragon boat racers on the Saskatchewan river to compete for the much coveted dragon boat trophy.

These are just some of the festivals you can enjoy in Edmonton. There is no reason to sit at home watching hockey when there is a different festival happening every month in Edmonton, a city that has truly earned the right to call itself the Cultural Capital of Canada. So come on down and enjoy one of the many festivals held throughout the year in this festive city.