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Vancouver Sun
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Vancouver Sun
Here's why these are Edmonton's five best summer festivals
Summer officially kicks off this weekend, and in Edmonton, that means a constant array of festivals in the city. From now till after Labour Day, it's hard to find a weekend in which there isn't some kind of event, whether it's a community party or a large-scale fest, some of which are world-renowned. We are Festival City, after all . This weekend alone, there's The Works, Edmonton International Jazz Festival, Improvaganza, the Circus Arts Festival and even North Country Fair or Beaumont Music Festival for those looking to get out of town. But which fests are best? We asked regular contributors Justin Bell, Liane Faulder, Fish Griwkowsky, Chad Huculak and Tom Murray for their takes on the events that to them spell summer in Edmonton. Get top headlines and gossip from the world of celebrity and entertainment. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sun Spots will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. It's 10 days on hot pavement serving hotter food and pulling in the hottest of takes; Taste of Edmonton is the city's best summer festival, a celebration of the culinary culture of the capital city and a place you can stuff your face with some of the best food in town. Why is this most humble of summer festivals deserving of the top spot among the pantheon of warm-weather festivities? The straightforward nature and the delicious offerings put it There's no secret 'best' way to enjoy the 11 days of Taste, no hidden knowledge to optimize your time at Sir Winston Churchill Square. You exchange tickets for food, then you eat the food. Whether you're in the mood for BBQ, noodles, sushi, Chinese, Vietnamese or even just some meat on a stick, there's something for everyone. It's also an opportunity to test new restaurants and dishes in one spot, a chance to find a new favourite dish or, at minimum, learn which vendors you may want to pass over the next time the munchies are calling. The best part of Taste of Edmonton is its malleability, fitting whatever adventure you're looking for in mid July. Casual date night? It can be that. A nice downtown lunch with your coworkers? Yup, it's that as well. An overnight trip into the city for shopping, dining and a smorgasbord of food? Yes sir, right this way, and let me recommend some wine pairings to go with your Korean hot dogs. There are adult beverages to be had, including a range of locally-brewed wobblypops. For young whippersnappers or the young at heart, tickets can also purchase a plethora of sugary non-adult drinks on offer. Before the detractors pile on, yes, there is a not insignificant cost for what can amount to a handful of mini dishes. But think of your taste buds lighting as you get to put all of those new things in your mouth. July 17 to 27 Sir Winston Churchill Square Info and tickets available at — Justin Bell It's difficult to be world-renowned when your festival is a celebration of, well, the world. Edmonton's Heritage Festival may not receive the same glib press as the Folk Music Festival or Fringe Festival, but if you were to pick a single summer festival that defines Edmonton, it's clearly Heritage Festival. The three-day festival honouring Alberta's cultural diversity has been the highlight of the August long weekend since its inception in 1976. As of press time, there are 195 recognized countries worldwide, and the Heritage Festival hosts nearly half of those in dozens of pavilions. Festival-goers are treated to diverse cultural displays, music, dancing and perhaps the event's most enticing draw: food. What better way to experience a country than by sampling its cuisine? Every year the Heritage Festival showcases a lengthy menu consisting of samplings from featured countries. Food options change from year to year, but 2024's menu highlighted food from Australia to Zimbabwe. Attendees can expect global grub ranging from kangaroo sausage, empanadas, pupusas, goulash, bison and biryani, as well as every kind of rice, noodle and meat on a stick under the sun. Alberta loves to trumpet its multicultural makeup, but when it comes to putting words to action, the Edmonton Heritage Festival stands above all. Walking the festival grounds, you're treated to a kaleidoscope of people decked out in cultural attire, weaving between booths and tents as worldly music and dialect mingle. The family-friendly, alcohol-free event is a bang-on representation of Alberta's societal makeup. However, since 2022, the festival's 'best in Edmonton' status has had an asterisk affixed to it due to it being relocated to the Exhibition Grounds/Borden Park because of the ongoing rehabilitation of its original home at William Hawrelak Park. There's certainly nothing wrong with Heritage Festival's temporary home – there's opportunity to go inside the EXPO Centre to escape the heat and Borden Park is one of Edmonton's unheralded gems – but for many Edmontonians, Hawrelark Park is as much a part of Heritage Festival's identity as Gallagher Hill is to the Edmonton Folk Music Festival. In Edmonton's packed festival schedule, Heritage Festival offers Edmontonians an alternative to the usual ginger-beef-palooza. It's also refreshing to attend a festival where you're not forced to fork out wads of cash every 10 metres, as the festival has no admission fee, but donations to the Edmonton Food Bank are encouraged. Heritage Festival is the celebration of co-existing, relishing the joy of life while stuffing your face with baklava. Aug. 2-4 Borden Park Info at — Chad Huculak It's just a matter of consistency, really. The Edmonton International Folk Festival has been part of my life in many different ways for decades, and the indelible moments have stacked up to the degree that it can't help but be my favourite festival. The musical memories are the easy part, though for me they're not necessarily the ones you'd choose. These are moments that stuck with me, forcing me to be present at a festival that sets off my ADHD. Van Morrison instructing his horn players off microphone to 'play long notes,' perfunctorily dashing over a set list filled with radio faves while leaving room for occasional deeper cuts like Fair Play. Van got divided reviews for his performance, but I personally was thrilled to hear even one song off his masterpiece Veedon Fleece, and hearing him teach on the spot was gold. There was the hypnotic desert blues of Mali's Tinariwen in 2018 leaving swirls of psychedelia in the darkening sky; Billy Joe Shaver on his knees in a moment of passion at the 2001 festival, raising his hands to his creator; Robert Plant and Alison Krauss coaxing a spooky rumble over the hill at 2024's festival with slow burn takes on Fortune Teller and Rich Woman. You'll agree, you'll disagree, but keep in mind that a number of my favourite performances weren't ones I was necessarily looking forward to. They caught me by surprise, just as I assume someone else at the festival caught you by surprise. Here's another, more sobering memory: a trip back to the hotel home base in the festival van while a radio link piped in Warren Zevon's performance. It was a sketchy connection, scratchy and static-y with multiple drop outs, and because of this it sounded absolutely haunted, a disintegration loop that couldn't be escaped. I'll forever link this memory with the announcement soon after that Zevon was dying of cancer. Morbid, right? Here's some more cheerful reminiscences that solidify my love for the festival: arriving and departing every night via Mill Creek Ravine; kids ceaselessly patrolling the crowd, looking for plates to return for the one dollar deposit; Elvis Costello ending his set with a riveting Deep Dark Truthful Mirror in 1995. Those are just the top of the memory pile, which if fully excavated, could make up a full page of this section. Aug. 7-10 Gallagher Park Tickets and info at — Tom Murray There is much to love about the Edmonton International Fringe Festival, including the shows (this year, some 220 of them), the food (deliciously fried) and the atmosphere (flaming buskers on stilts). But there is one Fringe characteristic that transcends all details and dynamics of the 10-day festival for me. Whenever I walk on the Old Strathcona site to review a play, or simply take one in, it is with the belly-tingling certainty that a transformation is about to take place. First, there is the overall metamorphosis of the site itself from a familiar, even beloved, commercial and residential hub into a heaving mass of humanity funnelled through a labyrinth of passageways and line-ups, all leading somewhere different than what was there before. Gazebo Park is suddenly the home of a bandstand. The farmers' market is noteworthy not for its fresh vegetables, but its proximity to a beer garden. Then there are the people who create the shows. While some plays, improvs, and sketch comedies are produced by talent who appear all year around in Edmonton, a large number are by people who have dreamed of writing or performing, but aren't theatre professionals. For 10 days, they are transformed into artists, risk-takers. That was my story back in 2018, when I brought a play I'd been writing for 10 years to the stage. I felt more like myself than I'd ever felt before. Then there is the transformation that takes place within the audience when we see a show that moves us. Every year, at least one show changes the way I think and feel, at least while I'm watching it. That draws me back to the Fringe Festival, over and over again. Aug. 14-24 Various venues Festival info at — Liane Faulder For those who enjoy a roving, choose-your-own-adventure in fishnet stockings and black eyeliner, Edmonton's youth-oriented Purple City Music Festival just keeps upping itself every year. Punk, darkwave, goth-industrial, metal, hip hop and a good smattering of indie country by night, there's also a two-day street party with wrestling matches in between sets Saturday and Sunday in front of Starlite Room. The discovery is exactly the point, so don't feel bad if you don't know this year's healdiners so far announced like L.A. psychedelic legends Wand, moody garage trio L.A. Witch, powerhouse New York live act The Mystery Lights, electronic producer out of Montreal Marie Davidson and (ok, you should know these goats) Vancouver hardcore punk pioneers D.O.A. What really gets me about this one is its SXSW/Sled Island sense of musical but also territorial exploration, churches to dive basements, as the city's core becomes a big open-sandbox style of first-person shooter (in my case, with a camera). All ages, no less. With the knowledge summer never used to be this long but winter is coming soon enough, this cultural scavenger hunt bumping into friends with suggestions on the street works a lot like a good song with frenzy, calm, frenzy leading you along into pre-dawn bliss. Best gig posters in the region hurts nothing of its reputation, and wildly we're still waiting for 70 of its bands to be announced! Tickets scale up as certain numbers sold, currently at $143.90 all in, so jump on sooner than later. Sept. 5-7 Various downtown venues Info and tickets at — Fish Griwkowsky Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don't miss the news you need to know — add and to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here. You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun. Love concerts, but can't make it to the venue? Stream live shows and events from your couch with VEEPS, a music-first streaming service now operating in Canada. Click here for an introductory offer of 30% off. Explore upcoming concerts and the extensive archive of past performances.
Calgary Herald
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Calgary Herald
Here's why these are Edmonton's five best summer festivals
Article content Summer officially kicks off this weekend, and in Edmonton, that means a constant array of festivals in the city. Article content From now till after Labour Day, it's hard to find a weekend in which there isn't some kind of event, whether it's a community party or a large-scale fest, some of which are world-renowned. We are Festival City, after all. Article content This weekend alone, there's The Works, Edmonton International Jazz Festival, Improvaganza, the Circus Arts Festival and even North Country Fair or Beaumont Music Festival for those looking to get out of town. Article content Article content But which fests are best? We asked regular contributors Justin Bell, Liane Faulder, Fish Griwkowsky, Chad Huculak and Tom Murray for their takes on the events that to them spell summer in Edmonton. Article content Article content It's 10 days on hot pavement serving hotter food and pulling in the hottest of takes; Taste of Edmonton is the city's best summer festival, a celebration of the culinary culture of the capital city and a place you can stuff your face with some of the best food in town. Article content Why is this most humble of summer festivals deserving of the top spot among the pantheon of warm-weather festivities? The straightforward nature and the delicious offerings put it Article content There's no secret 'best' way to enjoy the 11 days of Taste, no hidden knowledge to optimize your time at Sir Winston Churchill Square. You exchange tickets for food, then you eat the food. Article content Article content Whether you're in the mood for BBQ, noodles, sushi, Chinese, Vietnamese or even just some meat on a stick, there's something for everyone. It's also an opportunity to test new restaurants and dishes in one spot, a chance to find a new favourite dish or, at minimum, learn which vendors you may want to pass over the next time the munchies are calling. Article content Article content The best part of Taste of Edmonton is its malleability, fitting whatever adventure you're looking for in mid July. Casual date night? It can be that. A nice downtown lunch with your coworkers? Yup, it's that as well. An overnight trip into the city for shopping, dining and a smorgasbord of food? Yes sir, right this way, and let me recommend some wine pairings to go with your Korean hot dogs. Article content There are adult beverages to be had, including a range of locally-brewed wobblypops. For young whippersnappers or the young at heart, tickets can also purchase a plethora of sugary non-adult drinks on offer.
Edmonton Journal
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Edmonton Journal
The Works Art & Design Festival celebrating its 40 years in Edmonton
Article content The theme — Ground Works — is intentionally environmentally focused, its art full of impressions of flora and fauna. I ran into two-spirit Beave Cree-Métis artist Clinton Minault wearing a 'found' Louis Riel shirt out at North Country Fair earlier this week, where he's making a fox sculpture. For The Works on Churchill Square, he'll be live-building Belly of the Beast — a new bison sculpture to accompany his 2024 piece Beastly Two Eyed Festival Seer.
The Irish Sun
14-06-2025
- Health
- The Irish Sun
‘Keep out of reach of children' warning for Irish parents as popular kids toy recalled amid ‘injuries' fears
AN URGENT warning has been issued for Irish parents over a popular summer toy that was recalled due to "a risk of injuries". The Works is carrying out a Advertisement 2 The Jumbo Ballon Pumper comes with a risk of injuries Credit: The issued the recalls for the outdoor toy after discovering the product presents a risk of injury. The chiefs discovered that the product does not have a mechanism to prevent it from becoming over-pressurised. An over-pressurised container has a risk of shattering, potentially leading to injuries such as cuts. The batch numbers are 178095 and 178100. The barcode is 5052089331761. Advertisement READ MORE ON RECALL ALERT There are approximately 91 affected products in the Parents are urged to discontinue use immediately and keep it out of the reach of And they can return the affected product to any of The Works stores for a full refund. Those who want further information regarding this recall are encouraged to contact them at enquiries@ or call 00 44 1 21 313 6050. Advertisement Most read in Irish News Separately, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland has warned customers should 'Contaminated' cupboard staple recalled over 'life-threatening fungi' hidden inside – children are especially at risk The Authority issued a Category One For Action call to manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, caterers and retailers. The 60g pack sizes of the teething powder has a best before date of November, 2026 and the batch code is 231302. Advertisement The recall has been issued due to a packaging matter. Weleda said a potential problem was identified where a packaging process fault may have resulted in the presence of glass fragments. 'RISK OF CHOKING OR INTERNAL INJURY' A spokesperson added: "No other batches of Weleda Baby Teething Oral Powder 60g are affected by this recall. "If glass fragments are present in the powder and applied to an infant's gums, they could cause discomfort, pain, or minor injury. Advertisement "In more serious cases, there is a risk of choking or internal injury, including damage to the gastrointestinal tract, which may require urgent medical attention." Consumers are advised not to administer the powder from the affected batch to their infant or child. And they are also urged to return the product to the place of purchase for a replacement or refund. 2 The Works has urged parents to discontinue use immediately and keep it out of reach of children Credit: Getty Images - Getty Advertisement
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Strawberry Festival draws a crowd after CASY lends a hand
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — Terre Haute's way of kicking off the summer took place Thursday with the annual Strawberry Festival. Put on by First Congregational Church, the event took over downtown Terre Haute for the 38th annual year. For just $10, people can purchase a ticket for 'The Works.' That includes biscuits, topped with strawberries, ice cream, and whipped cream. While enjoying that treat, there are tables with tents and live music. Gwen Hicks is a co-chair of the festival. She said the event was almost cancelled, but residents are sure glad it continued. 'It's just an annual event and we just feel that it means so much to so many', Hicks said. 'Today, I've had so many people tell me that they're so glad we're back and that we didn't cancel. It just means so much for me to be here this summer.' The event had been cancelled this year until Chances and Services for Youth, or CASY, stepped up to help out. CASY's Chief Operating Officer, Brandon Halleck, said they provided some much-needed financial support and helping hands for the day. 'When they made the announcement that they weren't going to have it after 37 years, we kind of sat back and thought how can we let this happen when it's such a staple in our community', Halleck said. 'Everybody looks forward to the strawberry festival, it kind of kicks off summer for us. As an agency, we were kind of kicking around the idea then made a couple of phone calls to the church and now we're here today.' The festival took place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., where Hicks said a huge crowd had been enjoying the weather and treats all day. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
