Canada Day Events (and the rest of the weekend too)
Ah, the Canada Day long weekend in Edmonton. If you’re anything like me you started off by sleeping in, then dug into your traditional July 1 breakfast of back bacon+maple syrup poutine. Delicious.
And now that you’re energized by meat, fries, and gravy-syrup you need to get out and celebrate this fine country we call home.
Edmonton does Canada Day pretty damn well. You can catch the Silly Summer Parade on Whyte Avenue at lunch, then head just about anywhere for more red and white festivities; City Hall, the Alberta Legislature, Mill Woods (which has a huge party), attractions like Fort Edmonton Park (where they call it Dominion Day), the Muttart Conservatory, and Valley Zoo, and the Edmonton Garrison.
Don’t forget about fireworks! The big show is downtown in the river valley. Mill Woods also fills the sky with spectacular-ness.
The World’s Longest Flag Football Game also begins today, at noon. You can help them out, play, volunteer, cheer, and donate to the Stollery.
Speaking of sports…the Edmonton Capitals have the Maui Na Koa Ikaika in town.
Don’t think the festivals stop for a holiday. The Works Art and Design Festival continues at Churchill Square and around downtown. The musical lineup at Churchill Square continues to be amazing.
Speaking of amazing music…we’ve got this thing called the Edmonton International Jazz Festival. Yeah, that’s gonna have a great lineup too. (And is a good time to check out jazz if you’re not a regular at the Yardbird Suite.)
A new festival just began this weekend too. (New as in it just started, it’s not new to Edmonton.) The Freewill Shakespeare Festival is on in the Hawrelak Park Amphitheater. This summer you can see Othello and Twelfth Night.
Great show Saturday night at Wunderbar, with Shotgun Jimmie, Liam Trimble, and The Mitts. There’s also a big Slave Lake fire fundraising show this weekend up in Widewater (which is on Lesser Slave Lake).
Also this weekend, Edmonton is hosting the 2011 Canadian Ismaili Games. Neat.
Marching to the weekend
(Just think, I have three more weekends to make March puns with.)
Looks like a pretty solid weekend ahead. Downtown Dining Week kicks off today. So does Latitude 53′s new show, Cubic Units and New Prints by Mathiew Valade. Still Tonight…our friends at the Edmonton Bicycle Commuters celebrate 30 years with a bike art auction and pedal-powered concert. More good times could not be jammed into one evening.
In arts…Gargamel finishes its run at the Varscona Theatre. Garamel is a good play. there’s the Expanse Movement Arts Festival at the Roxy Theatre…The Art Gallery of Alberta is bringing in new spring shows; Nature and Spirit: Emily Carr’s Coastal Landscapes, Haida Art: Mapping and Ancient Language, Sherri Chaba’s The Silence of Chaos… (Speaking of the AGA, it’s hosting a Refinery party Saturday night.)
The Catalyst Theatre’s Hunchback is at the Citadel, from the people who brought you recently raved-about Frankenstein and Nevermore productions…the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra presents Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush, which will have the orchestra playing live along with the movie…Fringe Theatre Adventures presents “An evening with Uncle Val” by comedian Andy Jones…Alberta Baroque Ensemble is at Robertson Wesley United Church…Edmonton Columbian Choirs present Spring Bouquets, at McDougall United Church…
Winter Light concludes with the Star Party at Elk Island National Park Edmonton City Hall. That would be stars as in the sky kind, not the TMZ kind.
Gregg’s got the lowdown on the good movies. And the bad ones too.
In music…Jenie Thai is at the Blue Chair Cafe…Heart of the City Festival has a fundraising show...Buckcherry is in Edmonton tonight. Buckcherry. So is Sarah McLachlan…
I take this to mean the Nathan Carroll Band is going to perform Supertramp’s Breakfast in America at the Haven. Totally rad.
Saturday night at Brixx you’ve got the F.D. Jones Soap Company Ol’ Smashy…and Geoff Berner is at The ARTery tonight…
Also, the Edmonton Oil Kings are home to the Medicine Hat Tigers…and Pecha Kucha 9 goes tonight. PK9 is sold out, but you can watch it live from the comfort of your home via the Edmonton Journal.
Of Edmonton Events
We have come upon our first weekend in the post-2010 election era. I expect candidates and councillors to be sleeping in the next couple of days.
There are a number of things happening if you’re not napping.
On your way home tonight you could stop in at The ARTery and raise money for HIV Edmonton while enjoying the end of the work week. Friday night, Dan Hill plays the Shaw Conference Centre for a Canadian Diabetes Association fundraiser. Justin Rutledge is at the Haven Social Club. Library Voices swing into the Avenue Theatre.
Still Friday, there’s a Bicycle-powered party at the U of A.
Saturday night, Falklands returns home from a cross-country tour to play Teddy’s. Yes, Teddy’s. This should be a good one.
M.A.D.E. In Edmonton closes out “Edmonton Design Exposed” with a party at Bohemia. It’s a little spot that’s out of the way but worth trekking to.
We are starting to see all of the Hallowe’en movies now. Watching movies is still a viable pastime.
The Oil Kings, Eskimos, and Oilers are all home this weekend. There’s roller derby at the Edmonton Sportsdome (and it’s even got a nice Hallowe’en theme to it, with Regina’s Pile O’ Bones in town).
The City of Edmonton continues its series of Hallowe’en events with Pumpkins & Pirates at the Muttart Conservatory.
By the way, it’s Friday, which means it’s Free Cookie Friday over at Luzarra. Head down to Whyte Avenue for a coffee and mention Luzarra’s free cookie tweeting. Then you’ll get a free cookie.
And, as always, the geniuses at ShareEdmonton.ca and YEGLive.ca helped me fill out your social calendars. Those guys are awesome.
This is also happening all weekend long. Pure Spec is at the Radisson south.
The results are in: web-based show in top 3
Edmonton — Monday, October 18 Edmontonians chose their new city council and school boards. Monday night they chose a new way to watch election results.
With only CTV and Shaw dedicating primetime television hours to Edmonton’s 2010 election, Edmontonians tuned into “the edmontonian celebrates democracy.” A production of theedmontonian.com, the web-based show featured a mix of election results and analysis with the insight and comedic talents of many of the city’s brightest online, and independent journalists.
“We couldn’t be more excited about the show,” said Jeff Samsonow, Editor-in-Chief of the edmontonian.
“The show had been planned for months, but we had no idea Global, CBC, CityTV, and Access would stick with their regular programming on the city’s biggest local news night.”
“We are proud to have been there on election night. Without any dancing celebrities,” Samsonow continued, in an obvious reference to CTV’s one-hour show which made way for the popular “Dancing with the Stars.”
In the 8-9pm hour “the edmontonian celebrates democracy” was the city’s third highest-rated election show. 9-10 it was the second most popular, as CTV went back to regular programming.
“This was a big day for Edmonton,” said show producer Sally Poulsen. “This election showed Edmonton was ready to keep building LRT, redevelop the City Centre Airport, and become a city that can embrace its urban, creative side.”
“Since 100 Edmontonians chose our show over Hollywood programming we have another reason to celebrate October 18, “Poulsen continued.
Those behind “the edmontonian celebrates democracy” also thanked the City of Edmonton for providing polling data as it became available. ShareEdmonton.ca put the data into easy-to-understand results and was the key to ongoing updates during the show.
“Because the results were available to all, people don’t just need us to tell them who’s winning. Anyone can read you stats all night. We wanted to provide election and political information with large doses of humour,” said the Editor-in-Chief.
The good vibes have the crew behind the online show in a great mood the day after but Samsonow is left wondering what it will lead to.
“Do you think we can borrow one of those local television frequencies if Edmonton stations aren’t using them for Edmonton programming?”
—–
For more information:
Jeff Samsonow
Editor-in-Chief
the edmontonian
Fakey McFakerson
Fake Press Releases
fake@fakepressreleases.com
Engage
One upside to all of these election shenanigans is that our “Citizen Info” category (down at the bottom of our homepage) is getting quite the workout.
It’s probably going to remain that way for the next month or so. Oh well, you’re just going to have to come back here more often than usual to keep up-to-date.
Tonight there are two big options for some citizen engagement.
You can head to the Ward 7 candidate’s forum or a sector review workshop with the Edmonton Public School Board (EPSB).
Ward 7 is one to watch too. That’s where Tony Caterina (#TonCat) is running for re-election. He’s up against Brendan Van Alstine, who’s been campaigning since last year, and Scott McKeen, the Edmonton Journal City Hall columnist.
The forum is at St. Bernadette Elementary School (11917 40 Street), and runs 7-9pm.
But…
As mentioned earlier, you can watch from the comfort of your home because the City of Edmonton is livestreaming all of their forums.
The “sector review workshop” is about school closures. Hey, I’m not going to let the EPSB sugarcoat this. And they are:
Come to a “hands-on” workshop where you will review the input to date along with the facts and data and propose options on how to move forward in ways that address these issues. You can work through the details in a group or on your own, and EPSB representatives will be on hand to answer questions.
Was that written by Vaguey McVaguerson?
Anyway…get out to one of their workshops in the next few weeks if you want to talk about how to keep neighbourhood schools open, and maximize use of resources.
Tonight’s workshop runs 4-9pm and you can drop in at anytime. It’s at Queen Elizabeth School, in the cafeteria (9425 132 Avenue).
It kind of stinks the school board would plop the workshops in the middle of the freakin’ election, but that just means you’ll have to double-up. And elect some public school trustees who don’t just see a giant “Close it” button in front of them.
Maybe in your backyard
We haven’t done a civic-minded event in a while, and I found one while poking around ShareEdmonton.
Tonight (and tomorrow) the City will be talking about the new West LRT. There’s an open house tonight at the Fantasyland Hotel (in West Edmonton Mall).
The open house runs 4pm-9:30, with presentations at 4:30 and 7:30 (the same presentation).
Tonight the focus is on the leg of the LRT that will run between Lewis Estates and 156 Street/Stony Plain Road. Tomorrow, it’s all about the stretch from Meadowlark to MacEwan University.
Even though the LRT lines have been chosen, there’s plenty left to decide. That’s where you can put in your two cents.
The City needs to determine where stations are going to go, what kind of alignment and configuration the line (and stations) would have, and how overall transportation will look, including personal vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians.
Enjoy it
Last weekend I got rocked by Edmonton bands N.N. (pictured), The Mystery Ponies, and touchitandyouwillsayow. The first two are playing again this Sunday, at Brixx, with a couple of local rappers.
We hinted, in today’s symphony post, and movie previews, that summer is ending. So we might as well enjoy the unofficial end of summer with a long weekend full of good times.
It will be even better if the weather cooperates.
As mentioned, this weekend heralds new movies, and is the annual Symphony Under the Sky at Hawrelak Park.
There are more movies, on the square, with How to Train Your Dragon tonight and Toy Story 3 tomorrow night.
There’s more music festival, Saturday, with Sonic Boom back at Northlands.
Also at Northlands, all weekend, is the WPCA Dodge World Chuckwagon Championships.
One event I hadn’t heard of, before checking ShareEdmonton, is the Raas Garba Festival, which looks to be colourful, and features events with people from Edmonton, Calgary, Fort McMurray, and Vancouver. The festival is a celebration of the culture of people from the west Indian province of Gujurat.
Almost ABBA is at the Century Casino. Bobby Curtola is playing the Arden Theatre, in St. Alberta.
Alright, now back to young, hip kid stuff. (With some help from YEGLive.ca.)
Like Cam Penner, playing the Blue Chair Cafe tonight.
This weekend is also the Beaumont Blue Fest. That will see bands such as Jimmy and the Sleepers, Boogie Patrol, Gordie Johnson (from Big Sugar) and Amos Garrett bring down the party, rock things out, and and spill their souls, just southeast of Edmonton.
There’s even more great blues music all week at Blues on Whyte, with Winnipeg’s Big Dave McLean.
Bluebird North is showcasing songwriters this long weekend too.
You could always get lost.
Don’t forget:
The LRT will not be going beyond Churchill Station. That starts Friday night and continues through all of Monday.
You probably don’t have to work Monday.
Edmonton Events
Boring headline aside, this weekend has the potential to blow your mind.
Sometimes all you need is a good beer, a place to be, and a phone. The phone is in case you need to find a better party.
East meets West is this weekend, which is where you get the best of Edmonton’s Chinatown and Little Italy. And this year kicks off with Karibuni Afrikafest (happening now!). Three days, three cultures, three times the fun.
Good thing I check ShareEdmonton for events. I’d have never heard about the Outdoor Nite Market otherwise. That’s tonight (Friday), on 107 Avenue, and it’s got a little of everything. The best item it has is a reason for people to be out on the street at night, which encourages good things.
This weekend, Hawrelak Park has the first-ever Open Sky Music Festival. It’s all about surf rock, island rock and reggae. The weather may not say summer, but that music sure does. (If the festival’s website isn’t working for you, there are details at ShareEdmonton’s event page.)
Telus Field will be hosting a music event Saturday too. Rock The River hits our city.
Saturday night I’ll likely be checking out Bohemia for the first time. N.N., Touch it and you will say ow, and The Mystery Ponies are playing.
Eamon McGrath is at New City. That’s Saturday too.
Lady Gaga is still here. If she’s still in Edmonton this weekend I’m going to start getting worried we won’t be able to get rid of her. And I’m going to borrow her wardrobe.
Since it looks like we might have already tapped out the good weather you can always head inside to see a movie.
FC Edmonton gets its final kicks at its warm-up season Saturday. The team is hosting Miami FC. I wonder if they’re playing for the right to have FC in their name? There can be only one!
The Eskimos are home to the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Shouldn’t we be going to the games this season, so as to not appear as bandwagon jumpers if they get good again?
Over at the River Cree Casino there’s also the All-In for Diabetes Poker Tournament. Buy-in is $250 and you can claim $100 for knocking out bounties, such as CTV’s Daryl McIntyre. If you bring a bag of clothing as a donation you can get extra chips too.
Fast, Football, Festivals, Free, and Fantastic
Longboarders are going to have to be brave to tackle the race through our river valley. Yikes!
As for our headline…when the alliteration shoe fits…
This weekend sees the end of another year of fringing. But, fret not, the 29th Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival lives on in our hearts.
Oh, and in these holdover plays.
Hope this smoke clears out because there are a few outdoor movies this weekend. Finding Nemo (another F!) is playing tonight at the Valley Zoo. (Oops! It was last night. Thanks for the heads up, Mike.)
Movies on the Square is back too, with Diary of a Wimpy Kid tonight, and Fantastic Mr. Fox Saturday night. Stony Plain has an outdoor movie too.
It’s Free Cookie Friday at Luzarra. Get over to Whyte Avenue and buy a coffee so you can get a cookie. That caffeine and sugar will only help you start the weekend better.
The tune-ups are done and the Prairie Football Conference is into the real stuff this weekend. The second-best team in the country, the Edmonton Wildcats, begin their season home to the Regina Thunder. Sunday at Clarke Park (beside Commonwealth Stadium).
The winless Edmonton Huskies also begin the regular season this weekend. They’ll take anything they can get after going 0-8 last season. They host the Calgary Colts Saturday night at Clarke.
This is actually quite a decent level of football if you can’t bear to watch the Eskimos embarrass themselves anymore. Tickets are also reasonably priced.
Another non-Eskimos option is the Edmonton Capitals. Tonight’s game is also chock full of diabetes info, courtesy of the Canadian Diabetes Association. (The Capitals are ALSO showing a movie outside, after their Saturday game. It’s The Rookie.)
DEDfest is back to scare the crap out of you, and generally make you squirm.
DEDfest may get you thinking about Hallowe’en, which may get you thinking about fall, which may get you thinking about farmers harvesting their crops, which leads me to mention the Corn Maze is open.
Let’s dip into the ShareEdmonton calendar for some fun.
Clearer air would also help the participants in the Edmonton Dragon Boat Festival, happening at Louise McKinney Park.
As mentioned earlier this week, Saturday is the Canadian Derby at Northlands. It’ll be all fancy hats, fast horses and…bikini girls…
Hawrelak Park’s got the blues. Dun, dun, dun da, dun…The Edmonton’s Labatt Blues Festival…Dun, dun, dun da, dun…
Don’t forget you can always seek shelter from the smoke in a nice, cool movie theatre. Gregg can tell you what’s likely worth your money.
And on Monday, we’ll be celebrating our first year alongside another one-year-old, The Unknown Studio. Come on out to Wunderbar, throw us a toonie, enjoy some fine beer, and hear life-affirming passages from celebrity autobiographies. Party pants not required.
—–
While messing up the Finding Nemo showtime I also forgot to mention The ARTery’s kick-ass weekend. The Get Down is playing Friday night (there’s still time, it’s still good) and Saturday is an artists’ garage sale/pancake breakfast/bbq/block party. Told you it was kick-ass.
The Fringiest Events
Of course it’s the Fringe!
The 29th annual Edmonton International Fringe Festival is all the arts pages will be talking about for the next week. There’s also lots of stuff happening around Old Strathcona that doesn’t take place in a theatre or on a stage. This is the big one, Edmonton.
Morgan had a good point, don’t just try to see the 5-star shows. Ask people what’s good, what’s interesting, what they think you might like. You can always poke around Twitter, and try #yegfringe, for just such questions and inquiries.
Hawrelak Park is busy again this weekend, with the Celtic Festival. BluesFest is next weekend (in Hawrelak Park)…so get warmed up at Rusty Reed’s with Dave Babcock and the Night Keepers
EastwoodFest is Saturday, in the Eastwood neighbourhood. (118 Avenue, 85-87 Streets.)
Churchill Square, which the City has been trying to fill with more events and happenings, in between festivals, has the Latin Festival this weekend. Cha-cha-cha.
There’s Tomoto Fare too. That’s about tomatoes.
West of the city, it’s the Stony Plain Cowboy Gathering Society get-together. You can expect cowboy art, culture, poetry, and music.
Lots of new movies are out this weekend, like Eat, Pray, Love and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Gregg’s got your lowdown.
In music…N.N. plays an EP release show at the Starlite Room tonight, with Van Gohost and I.E.D. Sunday night at the Starlite Room it’s Fran Healy from Travis.
Falklands are at Wunderbar Friday night.
The Black Dog has some Hair of the Dog Saturday afternoon.
Over at Lyve on Whyte, Friday is Soul Train (with Crowded City Skyline and Hot Hand Phenomenon), Saturday it’s Rocky Mountain Rebel Music (with Brash Tax and The Party Martyrs).
Eddie Shorts has The Frolics Friday and Gaye Delorme Saturday.
Cirque du Soleil is in Edmonton, with Alegria.
In sports…The Prairie Football Conference (PFC) kicks off this weekend. 
Edmonton’s got two teams in that league. The Edmonton Wildcats are coming off a season in which they were western champs, and fell in the Canadian junior football championship. The Edmonton Huskies stunk it up last year, winning no games, and are looking for redemption in 2010. Those games are Saturday and Sunday, at Clarke Park.
From ShareEdmonton: FC Edmonton is hosting the Spokane Spiders (that means we could see Edmonton on all the Spokane affiliates! I hope Ana Cabrera talks about Edmonton.)
Whew!
Long weekend = One more day of fun
It’s the Heritage Day long weekend, Edmonton, so get out there and soak in all that summer.
Over the next four days (counting Friday night) there’s a lot to do in Edmonton.
Capital Ex continues at Northlands. A Taste of Edmonton is still at Churchill Square. (Both run until Sunday.)
And, of course, Heritage Day means Hawrelak Park becomes the Heritage Festival. It’s the 35th go-round for Heritage Fest, with more than 60 countries and ethnicities represented. There will be culture and food, all three days of the weekend, in the park. Plan your adventures with the map.
The winless Eskimos play tonight. Meh.
Friday night is a really good music night. Juliette Lewis is playing the Starlite Room, Metric (and Hot Hot Heat) are at Capital Ex, Fred Eaglesmith is in Stony Plain at the Blueberry Bluegrass and Country Music Festival, and there’s that little thing called the Big Valley Jamboree over in Camrose.
On Sunday, The Old Wives are playing at Lyve on Whyte and Audio/Rocketry is at the PawnShop.
And Capital Ex has more music at the Telus Stage Saturday and Sunday. Plus, The Be Arthurs can be found at Centre Stage.
There are dinosaurs!!
ShareEdmonton had an event that really caught my eye. (What can I say, I have a soft spot for chess.) This weekend is the Edmonton Chess Festival. Checkmate.
I also keep forgetting to mention Saturday as a great farmers’ market day. You’ve got the year-round Old Strathcona version, or summer’s City Market Downtown.
It’s the end of the month, so you can check Gregg’s July movie preview and his new look at the August releases, if you’re hitting the movie theatre.
Don’t tire yourself out this weekend, since Folk Fest starts Wednesday night, and the Fringe is on the horizon.
And, because I’m going to mention it all of the time, the edmontonian and Unknown Studio will be celebrating their first birthday(s) Monday, August 23.
Ukrainian rock
Some days, I won’t lie to you, I’m just looking around for stuff to highlight as a good event in our city.
Haydamaky
Most of the time it’s because I’m not going to mention the same week-long event again and again. Or I’ve missed a fun event by a few hours (like pancake breakfasts, I always forget about early morning stuff).
But I always find something. Because there’s always something happening in this city.
Today I’ve found one, thanks to ShareEdmonton and YEGLive.ca, that I didn’t know about. But it sounds like a good time.
Haydamaky and the Kubasonics are playing the Edmonton Event Centre this evening and it’s probably going to be one raucous Ukrainian party.
Kubasonics
Haydamaky is from Kyiv, Ukraine, while the Kubasonics are from right here in E-Town.
They both play what would be considered somewhat traditional Ukrainian music, but turned on its head, mixed up with rock (and other forms of music) and thrown out there in a new, eclectic, exciting mix. I’ve been grooving to their MySpaces while writing this.
I also enjoy the fact Haydamaky’s next few shows are here, Winnipeg, and Dauphin, Manitoba. We prairie folk keep it old country.
