Edmonton Festivals in the Summer

There's a reason that Edmonton is known as the Festival City.

With over 30 festivals year-round, Edmonton has something to offer anyone and everyone, especially during the summer months. Festivals ranging from music to culinary to theatre can be found June through until August.

From June 29th to July 25th is the Freewill Shakespeare Festival, running Tuesdays through Sundays at 8pm. The festival takes place at the Heritage Amphitheater in Hawrelak Park, and this year they will be performing Much Ado About Nothing (on odd days) and Macbeth (on even days). The cost is only $15 for students, and if you attend on Tuesday night or the Saturday matinee, you can "pay-what-you-will". For information about this festival, please visit their website at www.rivercityshakespeare.com

Running from July 23rd until August 1st is A Taste of Edmonton, a culinary festival held in Downtown Edmonton that showcases dozens of Edmonton's best restaurants. The event also includes A Taste of Wine, A Taste of Beer, a street market, a pancake breakfast and even live entertainment. For more information, please visit www.eventsedmonton.ca

Also running from July 23rd to August 1st is Capital Ex, Edmonton's summer Carnival. Capital Ex is held at Northlands, accessible by the LRT, and is full of rides, live music, food and much more. Notably, the Canadian band Metric is headlining the main stage on July 30th at 8pm. Check them out:

For more information about Capital Ex, visit http://www.capitalex.ca

Finally, Running August 4th to 8th is the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, an outdoor music festival held in Gallagher park. This year, performers include Van Morrison, Calexico, Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip, Ben Harper, Jakob Dylan and Patrick Watson. For more information, please visit http://edmontonfolkfest.org/ and check out a full list of performers here.

We've only gone through a fraction of the festivals that Edmonton has to offer during the summer. Other notable festivals include the Edmonton Street Performers Festival, the Labatt Blues Festival, the Edmonton Fringe Festival, and SONiC Boom. For a full list of festivals, please visit the City of Edmonton site.