It’s Sunny…go, go, go!
Yes, that blue stuff is called sky. It’s been a week or so since we saw it and it’s glorious.
Nobody will be happier to see thesun return than those who have been out in the rain (and mosquitoes) at the Edmonton International Street Performers Festival. It’s been going all week at Churchill Square, rain or shine. Now is the time for those of us fairweather festival goers to head on down and catch musicians, face painters, actors, magicians, human knots, comedians, jugglers and acrobats.
The Street Performers Festival runs through Sunday. And Friday and Saturday nights have special “late night madness” shows at the Stanley A. Milner Library.
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You know, speaking of sunny skies and things to do, it is Thursday. And Thursdays in the summer mean Latitude 53′s Summer Rooftop Patio Series. Tonight is a partnership with M.A.D.E and food from Elm Cafe. Thursday night hasn’t had it so good.
Live Music Weekend
It looks like a dandy weekend for live music in Edmonton, so let’s start there.
Tonight you’ve got a Christan Hansen & The Autistics all ages show at The ARTery with Paperplanes and Dragonboats, so that’ll be good. The Blame-Its, The Afterbeat, and Wildrose Orchestra, are at New City Legion…Over at Wunderbar you can hear Teen Daze with Oh No Yoko and Sugarglider…Craig Cardiff is at the Haven Social Club with David Blair and Erica Viegas… The Open Sky Music Festival isn’t until the end of August, but Souljah Fyah and Jeff Morris are getting things going this weekend
Saturday night is no less good, with The Weber Brothers, Chris Carmichael, and Lyra Brown at the Haven Social Club…Xplosionation, The Party Martyrs, and All The King’s Men, at Brixx… The Weekend Kids, Old Wives, and Freshman Years at Wunderbar…and The Consonance, Noisy Colours, whiskey wagon, all over at New City Legion.
Sunday (yeah, we’re still going on just music) there’s the Whyte Avenue Street Sale (which means the street will be closed to traffic between 105 and 103 Streets) and SOS Fest playing music on two stages all day long…Sunday night ends the weekend with a giant kick to the face of awesome with The Joe and Doug Hoyer kicking off their national tour at Wunderbar, with Mikey Maybe.
Whew.
We also have a bunch of festivals and the such.
Down in Hawrelak Park you can catch two of Shakespeare’s finest plays during the Freewill Shakespeare Festival. Heading into the Indy we’ve got Race Week Edmonton (which lasts longer than a week). The Edmonton International Street Performers Festival is on at Churchill Square. The Edmonton & Northern Alberta Historic Festival also begins this weekend (which can get you into some cool old buildings).
For the dogs, and dog lovers, you can head up to 118 Avenue on Sunday for Avenue Goes to the Dogs, put on by the Eastwood Community League.
If all of that great Edmonton music and festivals isn’t enough…
Cirque du Soleil’s “Dralion” is at Rexall Place. There’s a Campus Community Garden Open House, Saturday 11-2, at the U of A’s campus community garden. The Edmonton Eskimos will fight, fight, fight on at home to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats
Oh, and if you’re not doing anything at about 9pm on Sunday you can watch the last episode of our ShawTV series, the edmontonian presents, on Shaw cable channel 10. (It’ll be on YoutTube, Livestream, and iTunes shortly after.)
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.)
Take it to the street (or Churchill Square)
It seems I keep trying to mention the Edmonton International Street Performers Festival, and it keeps clouding over or raining.
So, screw it, I’m going to talk about this festival and the rain can shut-up. (In the case of weather, and summer storms, you can follow the festival’s Twitter account for updated changes and schedule alterations.)
This is the festival where the world’s best buskers take over Churchill Square and show off many more talents than I have.
There are musicians (I can’t sing), jugglers (I can do three items, but nothing on fire), hooping, comedy (I think I’m hilarious), circus stuff, dance (not this guy), clowns, kids performers, and more! Don’t forget to pay the performers after their show.
They’re also doing Late Night Madness, Friday and Saturday, at the Stanley A. Milner Library. (Pretty sure this is for a more mature audience.)
The festival runs through this weekend.
Searching for sunshine
365 Days of Sunshine, by Angela Ostafichuk
Hello Edmontonians, and welcome to summer.
In between teaching, hosting, hula-hooping and watching football it seems like the summer is melting quicker then the popsicle I forgot in the sun. As we all know, summer is truly the best time to be in Edmonton. The weather is good, the days are long and we have a million things to do in July and August.
Here is what’s cheap (or free) in this city this week.
Until July 18, the Edmonton International Street Performers Festival is running in Churchill square. Come on down and see some wonderful entertainment from around the world. Although the cost is free, donations are more then accepted as nobody *really* wants to be a starving artist.
Tuesday night check out “Much Ado About Nothing” in Hawrelak park, part of the Freewill Shakespeare Festival. As it is pay-what-you-will night, it makes for an entertaining, low cost evening. The festival runs until the end of the month and tickets usually are priced from $15 to $22.50.
For those women who are interested in spicing it up a bit (and I always say, an educated woman is not only smart, she’s happy) there is the “Orgasams 101″ workshop running out of the Traveling Tickle Trunk. Although people may complain that $25 is a bit much for a few hours, I say it is not. This workshop is priceless. It’s for women only, and you can check out their website for more education opportunities. (July 25 offers a Penis Pleasing workshop….These classes fill up fast though so make sure you register ahead of time.)
Thursday, July 15 gives a few opportunities to work on your inner artist. The AGA is back with their summer adult art classes. This week focuses on the Group of Seven and how to do acrylic landscape painting. At $12 a class these aren’t free, however, they are a wonderful way to try something new. A few blocks away, at Latitude 53, the rooftop patio series is still running, with the 15th featuring JCI.
Friday, the Fava summer party is at the Ortona armory and, being a potluck, means plenty of food and fun. Kick it back here, or enjoy one of Edmonton’s many patios with a walk, after, through the valley, while the sun sets.
And as for Saturday and Sunday… I’ll leave that up to you. For me it means farmers market, hooping at the Leg grounds and coffee at Credo! But who am I to tell you what to do?
Any ideas for what other Edmontonians do? Please leave a comment, or Twitter me at artstylelove.
Hold onto your potatoes
We’re right into the heart of Edmonton summer now, jam-packed with festivals. This is our time to shine, our time to live it up.
This weekend’s choices are plentiful. (And I realized, after I started linking, that events from ShareEdmonton and YegLive.ca are integrated today. Just mixing it up.)
Tonight, tomorrow, and Sunday there’s the SOS Fest, all over Old Strathcona.
We think it’s going to be so much fun, so many bands and musicians in lots of venues, that we’ve set up a separate blog just for the SOS. We’ll post through the weekend (which is not something we ever do) over there and wrap it all up here, Monday. Let us know who we should check out, which venues we should experience, and show us where the most fun is happening. We’ll see you on the street.
Oh, and Sunday also sees Whyte Avenue shut down for its annual street sale, plus two stages of live music for the SOS Fest. (I told you it was the place to be this weekend.)
Still in the neighbourhood, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas is playing at the Walterdale.
In sports, there’s the World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands, Sunday. Bars will be busy, I’m sure. The Capitals and Prospects are on the ball diamonds, and the Eskimos are home to the Montreal Alouettes.
The Edmonton International Street Performers Festival is back at Churchill Square.
Doors Open Edmonton and the Edmonton & Northern Alberta Historic Festival are going to take you into buildings you don’t normally get to explore, places sometimes unseen, and historic spots worth visiting. Including CKUA and Alley Kat brewery in Edmonton. Plus, there’s a walking tour of the Highlands neighbourhood.
That’s not to be confused with the Highland Gathering, at Fort Edmonton Park.
If you’re swinging by the Downtown Farmers’ Market you’re probably going to see the All Ford Classic Show.
Down in Hawrelak Park, the Freewill Shakespeare Festival continues with their runs of MacBeth and Much ado about nothing.
In music not related to the SOS Fest, OK GO is at the Starlite tonight. Raygun Cowboys play New City. And Streetheart, yes Streetheart, will be rocking the Century Casino.
The Art Gallery of Alberta is going late-night with another Refinery party. The Valley Zoo is also going for something with an after-hours feel, hosting ZooFest. The Bissell Centre is holding a Block Party of the Century too.
Transcend Coffee is putting their baristas to the test, Sunday, to see who deserves to compete in the Prairie Regional Baristas Championship. The latte foam will be flying.
If you’re heading toward Victoria Hill, just off 116 Street, Sunday, I hope you’re driving a soapbox racer.
And you can always see a movie.
In Case You Haven’t Noticed….
…it’s raining like a mo-fo.
‘Bout time. This picture comes from our good friend Lorraine, over in Beverly. Thanks muchly!
I, myself, took a stroll past Churchill Square this morning around a quarter to 12, because you know, Street Performers’ Festival, and it looked like a ghost town: (more…)
