Edmonton - The Festival City

[SeeGeeWhy]

I could see that title sticking on Edmonton...

Isn't pretty much a 24/7/365 pride parade up there?

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by flip

Basically every city in Canada has its equivalent to the Stampede in terms of rides/fair. In Regina it is called Agribition and in Saskatoon it is called Exhibition IIRC. Both are in the coming weeks before Stampede. Im sure Winterpeg has one too.

In EDM it used to be Klondike days and it is now Capital Ex. and it is held from the 16th to the 26th of July IIRC (this year).

It's the Red River Ex in Winnipeg.

The exhibition half of the Stampede is the same as the touring carnival that the other cities have.

What sets Calgary apart is the rodeo, and the fact that the entire city into the spirit of the event. In other towns, if you don't go to the Ex, everything proceeds as usual.

[WinColumn]

On Fringe Fest, the Edmonton one is supposed to be one of the largest in North America. I find it very good and worth the drive up the QE2. Most of the facilities are within walking distance and they even have a few blocks sectioned off as the central "grounds". Calgary's Fringe is only 2 years old in it's current implementation, much smaller, and spread out. Hopefully, it'll improve as the support for the independent arts improves. It's one of the few things worth checking out in Edmonton.

[enthused]

Originally Posted by WinColumn

On Fringe Fest, the Edmonton one is supposed to be one of the largest in North America. I find it very good and worth the drive up the QE2. Most of the facilities are within walking distance and they even have a few blocks sectioned off as the central "grounds". Calgary's Fringe is only 2 years old in it's current implementation, much smaller, and spread out. Hopefully, it'll improve as the support for the independent arts improves. It's one of the few things worth checking out in Edmonton.

I went up to Edmonton for the Fringe Fest last summer, and it was well worth it. I was actually very impressed with how well run and organized everything was, and how awesome some of the performances were. Plus like you said, most things were within walking distance of eachother, so you could hit up quite a few different things. Definitely worth heading up to Edmonton for, in my opinion.

[Sainters7]

Originally Posted by lchoy

The Taste of Edmonton is coming up soon (which Calgary has) and the August long weekend, it's the Heritage Festival, which is even better food with stands from over 60 countries serving ethnic food.

Taste of Edmonton is nothing special. I've been here for 2.5 years now and went to it two summers ago. Not near as many options as you'd think, and most of them were just deep-fried Asian foods...not exactly what you crave when it was 35 degrees out. It's quite small too, you can pretty much go through the whole thing(including waiting in line for food) in an hour.

The Heritage Festival, however, is outstanding! Went to that for the first time last summer, and I'm definitely going again. It's massive too, definitely an all-day thing if you wanna see everything. The different cuisines were great too, I'm still craving whatever the thing was called I had from the Bangladesh exhibit. Idk if Calgary has something similar(haven't lived there in 4 years), but if you're up here over Aug. long weekend I'd recommend checking it out.

[troutman]

Edmonton also has a RIVER VALLEY (like every other city in the world)

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Sainters7

Taste of Edmonton is nothing special. I've been here for 2.5 years now and went to it two summers ago. Not near as many options as you'd think, and most of them were just deep-fried Asian foods...not exactly what you crave when it was 35 degrees out. It's quite small too, you can pretty much go through the whole thing(including waiting in line for food) in an hour.

The Heritage Festival, however, is outstanding! Went to that for the first time last summer, and I'm definitely going again. It's massive too, definitely an all-day thing if you wanna see everything. The different cuisines were great too, I'm still craving whatever the thing was called I had from the Bangladesh exhibit. Idk if Calgary has something similar(haven't lived there in 4 years), but if you're up here over Aug. long weekend I'd recommend checking it out.

Based on what you and Ichoy describe, I'm thinking Edmonton's Heritage Fest is similar to our Global Fest.

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by troutman

Edmonton also has a RIVER VALLEY (like every other city in the world)

Don't forget that they built their downtown on the side of a hill.

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Based on what you and Ichoy describe, I'm thinking Edmonton's Heritage Fest is similar to our Global Fest.

Heritage Festival is much, much better.

Never went to Fringe, but I've heard good things.

All the other ones (including Capital Ex) ... meh

[OilKiller]

Originally Posted by enthused

Never went to Fringe, but I've heard good things.

My wife lives for the Fringe and it's one of the reasons why she doesn't want to move away from Edmonton. She has volunteered there numerous times as well.

Most of the festivals here in Edmonton are much bigger and better than other cites the "same" festivals show up at. Yes, Montreal is quite good, but when it comes to out west festivals, Edmonton does it right.

[RougeUnderoos]

I like to bash the Chukkers too, but when we have the slogan "The Greatest Outdoor Show On Earth" plastered all over town, it's hard to knock 'em for something as innocuous as "Festival City".

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Reaper

Don't forget that they built their downtown on the side of a hill.

Not half as bad as Seattle though.

[LChoy]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Based on what you and Ichoy describe, I'm thinking Edmonton's Heritage Fest is similar to our Global Fest.

It's "lchoy" "l" not "I"

I forgot about GlobalFest in Calgary, is that the one with fireworks? Not sure Edmonton has a firework festival

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

I like to bash the Chukkers too, but when we have the slogan "The Greatest Outdoor Show On Earth" plastered all over town, it's hard to knock 'em for something as innocuous as "Festival City".

Fair enough, what about "The Greatest Indoor Show on Earth". That's bashable.

Yes, they're talking about a mall.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

Fair enough, what about "The Greatest Indoor Show on Earth". That's bashable.

Yes, they're talking about a mall.

Ha ha, that is indeed bashable. Copying a goofy slogan is worse than using a goofy slogan in the first place.

Edmonton sucks!

[old-fart]

Edmonton does have it's share of festivals, but they pale in comparison to Montreal. Through the summer, Montreal has a festival basically every weekend, and they all blow away the festivals in other cities.

Sorry, but if you want to live in a festival and cultural center, it is not Edmonton. It is very clearly Montreal, and by a significant margin.

[OilKiller]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Edmonton sucks!

No, no it doesn't.

The Oilers suck, but Edmonton is just fine.

[Flames in 07]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

Fair enough, what about "The Greatest Indoor Show on Earth". That's bashable.

Yes, they're talking about a mall.

There is no way that they would copy Calgary with a slogan like that!

Signed,
The Copper Kilometer

[krazycanuck]

Originally Posted by lchoy

In their defence, they were named the Canada's cultural Capital in 2007. In the summer time, every weekend they have a different festivals, not all that appear in other places as well.

Let's see, other cultural capitals in the past have been:

2003 Vancouver (ok)
2004 Regina (what?)
2005 toronto (ok)
2006 Saskatoon (what?)
2007 Edmonton
2008 Surrey (are you kidding me?)
2009 Trois Rivieres

Winning the title of "cultural capital of the year" is the equivilant to winning the special olympics. Nothing more than a government program to spread around pats on the back to everyone

I live in Edmonton, this place sucks. Went to the street performers festival the other day, boring. Took about an hour to look at things, it was lame. This also runs for 10 days.

Capital Ex, people up here even think it's a joke. Stampede is bigger and better.

Folk fest is very similar to Calgary.

Film fest is similar to Calgary.

taste of Edmonton...have same thing in Calgary.

the 2 festivals I can't think of an equivilant to in Calgary are street performers festival, which was very underwhelming and fringe fest which is huge compared to Calgary.

No winterfest, no high performance rodeo, no globalfest, no afrikadey, no sled island, no warped tour, no virgin fest.

I would consider Calgary's music scene to be very average...but have found it to be terrible here.

[sadora]

when it comes down to the folk & fringe festivals Edmonton has us beat hands down. as much as I wouldn't want to live in Edmonton I am kind of jealous of their art scene in general, specially in the summer time. As for them claiming to be the festival city (since they're no longer the city of champions), they might want to clarify the "in Alberta" part, Montreal has to be the top choice in that category.