May 30 Edmonton Headlines
Welcome to the end of May/beginning of June, Edmonton.
Make sure you let the City know what you think about urban agriculture. Especially if you want some chickens or bees around. Speaking of urban agriculture…Boyle Street’s getting its first community garden. Man, those things are popular.
Progress and freeways, vs. nature and fewer interchanges. Not a story that ever goes away.
Does Edmonton need a safe injection site? A conference about injection harm-reduction is on our city this week.
Edmonton Indy party tent: 2006-2010 – we’ll miss you, old friend. And the tent jokes that could have been.
A century-old church in Old Strathcona is in need of some serious repairs.
You ever just walk around the city?
Edmonton is losing six of its Blockbuster video stores. We’ll be getting some Targets though, if that helps at all.
An Edmonton-area salesperson has been banned by the Alberta Securities Commission.
St. Albert wants to limit the length of time RVs can stay in Wal-Mart parking lots. I had no idea this was a thing Wal-Mart encouraged.
More? Could there possibly be more to talk about?
You bet. (more…)
Set your phasers to Festival
(As always, this isn’t a definitive list of what’s going on in Edmonton. Just stuff I know about or want to check out. ShareEdmonton and YEGLive are way more definitive.)
This is where your mettle for festival season begins to be tested, Edmonton.
We’ve had great festivals this summer, like the Jazz Fest, SOS Fest, Doors Open Edmonton and the Street Performers Festival. But now, now, is when you need to hydrate and find sleep when you can.
Now is when Edmonton becomes an endless string of carnival rides, mini donuts, race cars, deep-fried food, arts, music, theatre and parties.
This weekend we’ve got the Honda Indy Edmonton. That’s three days of race action at the City Centre Airport. There will be spin-off parties, including the tent on Jasper and the Race Week Music Festival at the Sutton Place hotel. (Side note: Drake is playing the Edmonton Event Centre, Saturday, with an after-party at the tent.)
Capital Ex kicks off its ten day run today. The only way you’ll be slowed down here is if you eat that giant hamburger they’re calling The Monster.
The Freewill Shakespeare Festival is into its final days of Macbeth and Much Ado About Nothing.
Churchill Square is full of food. That’s because Taste of Edmonton is back to fill your stomach with a selection of tasty treats from city restaurants.
You can draw at Draw. The annual arts event that includes, umm, drawing, DJs, food, dancing, and who knows what other kinds of fun. It’s at more than one location this year. Find yourself some space to express yourself visually at Latitude 53, Harcourt House, and SNAP. Things finish off at FAVA.
And that’s just the festivals.
We’ve got live music all over the place, including some Old Ugly action at Axis Cafe, featuring Kumon Plaza, Jessica Jalbert, and Jaded Hipster Choir. Wolf Parade is at the Starlite Room. A guy you’ve probably heard of, Neil Young, is at the Jubilee tonight.
You can refuse to believe the rumors, but SkeptiCamp Alberta is happening Saturday, at the U of A.
For the family, Sesame Street Live is at Rexall for shows throughout the weekend.
The Edmonton Prospects are home to Medicine Hat at John Fry Park.
Don’t forget you can seek air-conditioned refuge in a movie theatre.
Remember to pace yourself. Right after Capital Ex and Taste of Edmonton we’ve got the Heritage Festival, Folk Fest, the Fringe (and the edmontonian and Unknown Studio birthday party). It’s going to be September before we know it. (And once it is September we’ve got Symphony Under the Sky.)
p.s. If you’re by a computer Saturday night, at 9pm, why not come right back here and catch our attempt at a TV talk show: “Saturday with Samsonow.” It’ll be something. It might even be good.
What to do, what to do…
After what felt like an exceptionally busy weekend, seven days ago, this weekend appears a little tamer.
There's going to be so much art here.
But there’s still plenty of good stuff around. And don’t you even think this signals a slowdown. The Capital Ex, Indy, Heritage Days, Taste of Edmonton, Fringe run is going to test your festival abilities.
As Sally brought to our attention earlier today, ArtWalk takes over Whyte Avenue this weekend. And a little rain isn’t going to stop the art.
Rain also hasn’t stopped the Street Performers Festival, wrapping up this weekend.
Angela reminded us that FAVA is partying today.
In music…Lily Fawn and her Lullaby band are at at The ARTery.
SOS Fest participants Wool on Wolves are playing Brixx, Saturday night. Jazz is at Wunderbar. It’ll be like you didn’t even miss them last weekend.
Blue Oyster Cult‘s at the Century Casino, Saturday night. Peter Frampton is tenting it up at River Cree.
The Pawn Shop is holding an undiscovered singing competition. Don’t forget about the Party Tent. (How could you though?) And Edmonton has a new blues bar. Rusty Reed’s opens with Big Dave McLean.
Gregg will probably be seeing Inception this weekend. It’s one of this month’s more anticipated films.
In sports…the Capitals play ball. (That means fireworks Friday night.)
Edmonton’s Pitching a Tent, or Tent City, or The Tent Commandments, or Tent Angry Men, or anything Tent Related Jeff can think of that is funnier than this
So, here’s a question: How come everyone in the greater Edmonton area knew about this giant tent on 107 St., except me?
On twitter, folks are like, “Oh yeah, that’s just the party tent they put up downtown every year.” WHAT?! This is a thing? And not only is it a thing, it’s a thing that has apparently been around so long, you guys are all jaded and blase about it?
Well, call me Pollyanna, but IT’S A GIANT TENT DOWNTOWN. A GIANT TENT CONSTRUCTED PURELY SO THAT IT MIGHT BE FILLED WITH PARTIES. That impresses me. (Incidentally, it also impresses me that our buddy Rene went out of his way to provide photographic evidence that a tent is indeed being erected (hee hee) in the downtown area. Thanks man!)
Obviously, my interest is now piqued, and I would like more information about this “party tent”. I visited its website and its facebook page, but it doesn’t really explain who built the tent, where they came from, or what their motives might be. There is, however, a list of upcoming tent performances, and opportunities to apply for jobs inside of the tent. There are also photos of girls inside the tent in bikinis, girls inside the tent kissing, and musical performers. And Dennis Rodman…wait, what?
WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON INSIDE OF THAT TENT?!
Anyway, the party tent is on twitter, and it has recently tweeted that there will be a kickoff party going on inside of it tomorrow night. Any more details you guys could give me would greatly appreciated.
