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.
The Jazz Works: Perfect Time(s) to Explore
Two of Edmonton’s larger, and more familiar, arts festivals are on right now.
The Works has takeover Churchill Square with art, music, and right-brain thinking (which is the creative, more intuitive side of the brain).
You’ll also find plenty of art installations and showcases throughout the downtown, everywhere from building lobbies, to hotels and restaurants.
The Works is Edmonton’s annual summer arts festival. It’s a great way to explore some art, maybe dipping your toe into things before you make the leap to galleries. (Latitude 53 also has the Visualeyez festival in September which is more experimental, edgy, and performance art.)
*****
The Edmonton International Jazz Festival is Edmonton’s yearly celebration of jazz. Obviously.
Every summer, jazz musicians from around the world will come and play the Yardbird Suite (Edmonton’s historic jazz club), the Winspear Centre, bars, clubs, and parks. You’d be hard-pressed to make it through the end of June without bumping into some jazz.
Like The Works being an easy way to explore art, the Jazz Festival is a simple way to listen to music you may not normally jump at. Festival passes, and show tickets, aren’t all that expensive and a festival provides a more relaxed atmosphere where newbies can mix with the longtime afficionados.
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.
Give me The Works
You can kind of see it, this car is full of soil and plants.
While normally a reference to topping your hamburger with everything, in Edmonton The Works is also our big summer art and design festival.
And I have only hinted at it so far. Time to talk about it on its own.
The Works has been on for more than a week, but you’ve still got a couple of days to catch all the action in Churchill Square, and at so many buildings and venues in the downtown.
It’s a chance to see art, dance, clothing, and anything that can be made, designed, sculpted or created. It’s also neat to wander into some of the downtown office buildings and find a bunch of art in the lobby.
Art that wasn’t there before and will be gone July 8.
Hey, do you know if they’ve cut those Smart cars out of the plaster yet? I keep checking!
Told you.
Canadian Events
Happy Canada Day, Edmonton!
If you’re feeling patriotic today can get into the Canadiana all over the city. There’s the Silly Summer Parade down Whyte Avenue, Churchill Square is busy with The Works and City Hall has Canada Day activities, the Alberta Legislature is all about our country’s 143rd birthday, and Mill Woods always throws a huge party. For a complete listing of all of Edmonton’s Canada Day fun head to the City’s website.
And don’t forget about fireworks! Mill Woods has them tonight and the river valley will light up with the city’s main sky display. There are some traffic restrictions downtown, tonight, because of the fireworks, so, again, check the city’s website for Canada Day and fireworks details.
Now, because Canada Day is Thursday this year it’s going to throw the week totally off for some people. I’ll be be back at work Friday, but you might not be. So let’s just call this a long-weekend and see what’s going on Thursday-Sunday.
As I noted above, The Works continues in Churchill Square, and various installations around downtown.
The Edmonton International Jazz Festival continues. You should snap some photos and win our hat.
One more festival…feats – estival of dance, continues to move.
July is a new month, and a new month means new movies.
Tonight, the Summer Rooftop Patio Series is on at Latitude 53, and they’re open late for Canada Day.
Meanwhile…over at the “tentue” you’ve got Kim Mitchell and Sass Jordan Friday night. You can’t get more Can-con than that. Speaking of homegrown talent, Calgary’s Roman Danylo is going to be making people (maybe you) laugh over at The Comic Strip.
There’s some big news at the City Market. Eva Sweet Waffles is going to be at the downtown farmers’ market for the rest of the summer. Get some waffles.
It’s a pretty good sports weekend here in the City of Champions. The Edmonton Capitals are taking on Calgary, and you can get another fix of fireworks after Friday’s game. There’s more baseball with the Edmonton Prospects. And the Edmonton Eskimos kick off their 2010 CFL season Sunday, against the B.C. Lions.
Now it’s time to check in with ShareEdmonton and YEGLive.ca for important events and music.
Lil Kim is at Union Hall tonight. Lil Kim is at Union Hall tonight!
The Freewill Shakespeare Festival is back, and they start with my favourite of the Shakespears; Macbeth. They’re also doing Much ado about nothing.
Let me know if there’s anything else I’m missing. Last week I forgot to tell you about the Edmonton Turkish Festival and that’s one of my favourites.
UPDATE: How could I totally forget about the E-Ville “Declaration of Derby,” happening Saturday? I mean, we were giving away tickets and everything. It just proves you guys need to keep me on my toes.
Monday Headlines
It's going to be interesting to see how these car casts turn out.
It’s Monday everybody! And it’s a short week, or a weird 3-days on 1-day off 1-day on week. Any way you cut it there’s probably a day during the week you’re sleeping in and that’s pretty sweet.
Unless you sleep in all the time, then it’s just a regular week. But with Canada flags and fireworks Thursday.
If you paid even a little bit of attention to news this weekend I bet you heard something about a little conference in Toronto called the G20. Yes, leaders of 20 countries gathered in Canada’s largest city for a summit. Protesters rallied. Some goons took it too far.
Here in Edmonton, newsrooms localized the police and protester story by finding Edmonton police and protesters in Toronto.
from the Edmonton Journal:
The heady rush of celebrity that surrounds a city councillor
Catholic schools threatened if Bill 44 opting-out rule enforced
Ham operators dial into crisis
Edmonton Olympian shares special day with fundraiser for blast victims
New commanding officer welcomed home at CFB Edmonton
From the Calgary Herald’s in-depth look at worker deaths in Alberta is this piece on deadly roads. Also from the Herald: Alberta tapping new market in China (A new tourism market for our province.)
From the National Post – Alberta doctors win right to free speech
from the Edmonton Sun:
Somalis celebrate in Edmonton (It’s Somali Canadian National Week.)
Mountie killed in Alberta crash remembered
More than $50,000 up for grabs in Edmonton apps contest
from Metro Edmonton:
Another step forward (All about where we’ve come in two years with transit.)
from 630CHED/iNews880:
Canada celebrates right here in Edmonton (Commonwealth Stadium will host a celebration of our gold medal winning hockey teams and the military tonight. Meanwhile…the city is considering a $300,000 statue to commemorate our military.)
from CBC Edmonton:
Health-care wage freeze in works for Alberta
Syncrude verdict encourages Fort Chip residents (Syncrude was found guilty in the duck deaths on Friday.)
Edmonton businesses use more security dogs
No building code changes after music fest tragedy (But they’ll be on hand for the construction of this summer’s Big Valley Jamboree stage. To what end if there’s nothing new or different for organizers?)
from CTV Edmonton:
Alberta’s Wildrose Alliance edges to political centre (And Graham Thomson says Wildrose policies confusing to voting public)
Group wants fate of City Centre Airport put to a vote (Envision Edmonton was out at Airfest gathering signatures. I’ll be they’ll be back for the Indy.)
Canada’s population surpasses 34M in first quarter (But here in Alberta we only saw a few new people so far this year.)
Maddox headds back to New York to meet with doctors
And finally this morning… Of course, the word boner caught my eye. I’m so immature.
Western Canada Fasion Week has a presence at The Works.
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?
“A PAPERCLIP CAN BE A WONDEROUS THING”
Quick! While there’s still time! Go to The Works, and see this. It’s an eight 19 piece installment of wood carved images by Calgary artist Lisa Brawn, located in the lower level of Manulife Place, just outside Holt Renfrew. They’re amazing and kind of remind me of Daniel Clowes comics; also, MACGYVER!
Ms. Brawn, AN ARTISTIC GENIUS WHO I NOW WORSHIP, is also on twitter.
