Food-Filled Events
It's gonna be like this, times 100.
Today you can eat some BBQ and chat with local producers and farmers at Wild Earth Foods’ Open Air Market, 2-8pm. You can also get some street food at What the Truck?!, 4-8pm. I hope to see you at one, or both, of these.
I am going to eat so much today…
Sticking with food…Saturday is market day! There’s the City Market (downtown), Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market (Whyte Avenue area), and St. Albert Farmers’ Market. On Sunday it’s the Callingwood Farmers’ Market (southwest Edmonton).
More food!!
To the festivals! Opera Nuova’s Vocal Arts Festival wraps up this weekend. Alberta Dance Alliance’s feats Festival of Dance has begun! The Works is on, in Churchill Square and around downtown Edmonton. The Edmonton International Jazz Festival is also on now. Improvaganza is still making with the funny. June isn’t done yet, so Bike Month continues too.
Holy cow we have a lot of festivals!
Fans of the TV show Firefly (and the movie Serenity, I presume) are fundraising at Can’t Stop the Serenity.
Perhaps a movie is in order this weekend? I hear there are plenty of great sci-fi options.
For the family…the John Janzen Nature Centre is open again. I guess this could also be for nature-lovers. Saturday, you can head on down to Rundle Park for Paddlefest.
It’s a great music weekend in Edmonton. The Works is packing Churchill Square with fantastic acts like Doug Hoyer, The Fight, and The Joe. The Edmonton Jazz Festival is, of course, all about music, from homegrown talent like Krystle Dos Santos to International artists like Trombone Shorty (Troy Andrews). The Apresnos are at Haven Social Club tonight…
(Totally forgot to try and embed an Apresnos song, so check them out completely here.)
Saturday’s Hair of the Dog (at The Black Dog) features Jessica Jalbert. Get on board with Jessica Jalbert now, Edmonton. Edmonton music blogger New Music Michael is having a birthday party with with One Way State, kickupafuss, and Honheehonhee, at New City.
Sunday, The Sadies and The Sheepdogs play the Pawn Shop.
It’s a good sports weekend in Edmonton too. The Edmonton Eskimos are home to the Calgary Stampeders in pre-season action. FC Edmonton hosts the Montreal Impact. The Edmonton Capitals are home to the Yuma Scoropians. And the Edmonton Energy have the Albany Legends in town. That’s a lot of guys giving 110% and leaving it all out on the floor/field/diamond.
Festival Saturday (and the rest of the weekend too)
Summer officially arrives in Edmonton next week, which probably explains why this weekend is so jammed with festivals.
Friday and Saturday there’s the Utopia Music Festival, which kicks off summer in Hawrelak Park.
On Saturday we’ve got Bikeology (in Beaver Hills House Park), and the whole month of June is actually Bike Month, Park(ed) is back on the streets, taking up parking spaces (on 102 Avenue), Rock The Square (at Churchill Square), Africa Connect (at the Edmonton Expo Centre), and the Hope Street Festival (105 Avenue and 100 Street). 107 Avenue also has Safe Streets and a Night Market on Saturday (afternoon and evening).
Improvaganza 2011 is just getting warmed up (and will even have social media improv on Monday). Opera Nuova’s Vocal Arts Festival and the Edmonton Pride Festival are both continuing too.
For you, young and engaged folks, tonight is Pecha Kucha 10: Designing Downtown (which you can watch through the Edmonton Journal’s livestream), and Next Gen’s back at it on Sunday with the DIYalogue. We’re happy to be one of the groups chatting about cultural start-ups and entrepreneurship.
On a more serious note, there’s a picnic in Giovanni Caboto Park to remember murder victim Nina Courtepatte, and others lost to violence.
Watch It!’s got a BOOMBUS on Whyte Avenue today (4-8pm) and it’ll be downtown, on Jasper Avenue, Saturday morning. Keep your eyes open for this rolling watch and street party.
Over at La Cite Francophone you can catch a production of Little Shop of Horrors.
In music…Radio for Help plays the Pawn Shop tonight…Joe Nolan has a CD release at the Haven Social Club…Sidney York plays Brixx Saturday night, with Kaley Bird…The Collective West and Jeff Morris are at The ARTery…Wunderbar’s got a Weird Canada and Scion show…And Zero Cool’s at DV8 with Down the Hatch…
You can always catch a movie, which is likely to be a summer blockbuster right now.
Farmer’s markets abound on the weekend, downtown, in Old Strathcona, St. Albert, and in Callingwood.
The Edmonton Capitals are hosting the Chico Outlaws down at Telus Field.
The Summer Party Begins
We are one week away from actual, proper summer, but the fun is in full swing this weekend. There is so much fun that I am going to break it down into sections.
Festivals
Edmonton’s Pride Festival kicks off with the Pride Awards, and parties tonight, and the parade through downtown Edmonton tomorrow. The Pride Parade ends up at Churchill Square for the rest of the afternoon.
Festivals for the old – Creative Age – and young – NextFest – continue this weekend. NextFest’s got, among so many things, a great show at the Avenue Theatre tonight.
Opera Nuova’s Vocal Arts Festival continues until Jun 26. Talking ’bout singin’.
Saturday and Sunday, there are 4 plays in the Sprouts 2011 New Play Festival for Kids, from Concrete Theatre, at the Stanley A. Milner Library.
Bike Month continues, uh, all month, with a bike repair-a-thon this weekend.
Saturday on 104 Street is more than the farmers’ market, with the Al Fresco block party. Take that, cars!
Music
Tonight…Sharks, Mockingbird Wish Me Luck, The Fight, and Owls By Nature are all at the Pawn Shop.
Saturday night, Gurf Morlix plays the Haven Social Club in a tribute to Blaze Foley.
Did I mention NextFest’s great lineup?
Arts
It’s a Handmade Mafia weekend!
DEDfest’s got a screening of Dead Alive at Metro Cinema this evening.
Sports
The Edmonton Energy are playing basketball, the Edmonton Capitals are out on Telus Field, and FC Edmonton is kicking around Foote Field.
Miscellaneous
Movies are always a good time. We are in for a sci-fi summer.
Saturday is river valley day! This is the 14th year celebrating the Edmonton region’s glorious river valley and its parks. Edmonton’s event is at Rundle Park. There are pancakes.
There’s a Pre-TEDx party tonight at Suede Lounge, with the (sold out) event happening tomorrow. (You can watch a live webcast of the event tomorrow at the TEDx Edmonton site.
Mount Pleasant Cemetery is throwing its gates wide open to everyone on Saturday. This is as much about Edmonton’s history and land use (with 2 new cemetery plans in the works) as it is morbid curiousity.
You can take your car to an Edmonton CARSTAR location Saturday and have it washed for a good cause, as part of the national “Soaps It Up” fundraiser for Cystic Fibrosis.
Month of the Bike
Every June in Edmonton is Bike Month. That means the humble bicycle is celebrated as recreation, sport, and transportation vessel. It’s the transportation one that is often forgotten in car-loving cities like Edmonton.
This weekend there’s a 24-hour bike repair-a-thon, in case you need some tune-ups. It begins on Saturday at noon, at the Edmonton Bicycle Commuters’ headquarters (10047 – 80 Avenue).
The big event of the month will happen Saturday, June 18. Bikeology will take over Beaver Hills House Park (Jasper and 105 Street) with bikes, bikes, and more bikes. Plus music, smoothies, and fun. (June 18 will also be “Park(ed)” in downtown Edmonton, so drivers are best to avoid the downtown unless they are walking or on people-powered wheeled vehicles.)
Bike Month is a whole month of events though, with breakfasts, mocktails, movies, and information nights.
Breakfasts are as follows:
- June 10 – Bike to Work Breakfast – 7-9 a.m. – Da Capo Cafe
- June 17 – Bike to Work Breakfast – 7-9 a.m. – Ezio Faraone Park
- June 24 – BIke to Work Breakfast – 7-9am – Sugar Bowl
Mockails are always at the north-side of the High Level Bridge, in Ezio Faraone Park – Wednesday June 8, 15, 22, 29 – 4-6 p.m.
If you want to bike to the movies, you can every Monday. Tonight, June 13, 20, and 27 you can catch a flick at Metro Cinema, at 7pm. On Monday, June 27 it will be Edmonton’s The Bike Heist – which we’ve talked about before.
On Saturday, June 25 there’s also a Bike-in Movie (an outdoor screening of The Triplets of Belleville) with music by Patrick Dunn and Jill Pollock at Victoria Park Cricket Pitch (12130 River Road).
One of the “Dialogue Nights” that caught my eye is June 21 (7-9 p.m.) at Credo Cafe (10134 104 Street), about winter cycling – an idea which intrigues and terrifies me.
For the full calendar of events check out Bikeology or the Edmonton Bicycle Commuters.
The Bike Heist
I got an e-mail from The Bike Heist crew this week. At first I was all “What’s a The Bike Heist?” then I clicked the link they generously provided in that e-mail and my crush on Edmonton’s bike scene grew a little deeper.
Here’s how Heister Janine Merkl laid it out to me:
It’s a full feature all about bikes and comedy. We shot the whole thing in Edmonton, highlighting the bicycle community and the landscape. We shot in classic local spots including, an epic bike chase in the river valley, the New York Bagel Cafe, Fava (Film and Video Association of Alberta building), the classic Berkley Apartment building behind the garneau theatre, the roxy theater and much more! We are in the midst of post production right now and things are going along swimmingly. We are planning to screen all over the place in June 2011, suitable for bike month!
I’m intrigued by The Bike Heist and hope to hear more from them before next June. I mean, any movie that’s shot in Edmonton, put together by Edmonton people, and includes the Bike Polo Club and Christian Hansen & The Autistics is going to be alright.
Already the end of June
It seems like June has just flown right by this year. And since we are in the midst of the festival season it’s just going to keep zipping along.
Why, just look at this weekend. We’ve got the Edmonton International Jazz Festival (including the free Jazz in the Park event Saturday), The Works Art Design Festival,
the Serca Festival of Irish Theatre, Bikeology wraps up Bike Month with a dance party, Improvaganza is finishing, and feats – festival of dance is sure to get you moving. That’s a lot of festivals.
This afternoon, you’ve also got the Edmonton Oilers drafting their first-ever first overall NHL pick. The team is throwing together a party. Will it be Taylor or Tyler? (That sounds like the stunning conclusion on some teen drama.)
This weekend is Edmonton’s first Startup Weekend. I’d explain what that is but Mack will probably do a better job.
I’ll be closing out the month-long Edmonton Community Challenge by building a canned good sculpture at Churchill Square. So I’ll probably take in some of The Works while I’m there.
Now it’s time to check in on all that is happening in Edmonton with ShareEdmonton and YegLive.ca
The Edmonton Energy are taking on the Los Angeles Lightning, in IBL action, at NAIT’s downtown campus.
If you’re up for a little bit of a road trip, head out to Stony Plain (I said it would be a little road trip.) to catch The Swiftys at the Early Stage Saloon.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier Park will be overrun by little creatures since this Sunday is Pets in the Park 2010.
And on Monday you can celebrate Canada’s Olympic hockey glory at Commonwealth Stadium.
What else is going on this weekend?
Speaking of bikes…
You know, since we’ve been talking about bikes today, how about one more note.
Tonight is another one of those “bike-to-the-movies” movies over at the Citadel. (In the Rice Theatre actually.)
So bike on over for Man with One Red Shoe, at 7pm.
Oh…did I mention it was free? It’s free.
Go, bike month, go!
