Edmonton - Canada's Festival City

Edmonton hosts more than 30 festivals throughout the year that celebrate music, visual arts, dance, performing arts, sports and film. Throughout the summer festivals are held for blues, bluegrass, folk, jazz and symphonic music. Winter festivals focus on ice sculptures, skiing and skating. In-between, there's something for everyone from the Canadian Finals Rodeo to the Freewill Shakespeare Festival - and five distinct arts festivals that focus on art design, storytelling and film.

If you've ever wondered why Edmonton has earned the reputation of Canada's Festival City, here are just three of the reasons!

EDMONTON FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL

Music legend John Prine calls it the best musical festival in the world… and with good reason.  To be at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival is to feel the sheer power and beauty of 80,000 music lovers finding reason to fall more deeply in love.  This is four full days of blissful live music, international cuisine, green grass, blue skies, and nights of music lovers, young and old, sitting in the dark with candles burning.
 
Here's the best part: all of this happens to the live music of greats like Chris Isaak, Aimee Mann, Serena Ryder, Hawksley Workman, Martha Wainwright, the Black Pioneer Heritage Singers and more.  This is the best possible soundtrack to life!

• In 2008, the Folk Festival took in $1.6 million in box office receipts
• There are 1800 volunteers on 35 crews and over 90% of volunteers return each year

“Described by Rolling Stone magazine as the ‘hippest music festival on the continent,’ the Edmonton Folk Music Festival is a four-day celebration of music from around the world.”
Canada Travel Agent Manual, Travelweek, (Toronto, ON), May 25, 2000

“The Edmonton Folk Festival … is the gold standard for such events in Canada.  Often sold out well in advance, the festival, now in its 23rd year, has in the past attracted such diverse talents as Joni Mitchell, Elvis Costello and k.d.lang.  It also has a great venue: a grassy hillside overlooking the North Saskatchewan River Valley and the city’s downtown that acts as a natural amphitheatre.”
“Edmonton Unplugged,” Maclean’s, Aug. 12, 2002

EDMONTON INTERNATIONAL FRINGE THEATRE FESTIVAL

For eleven days in August, life is truly a stage in Old Strathcona as the Edmonton Fringe unfolds its multi-coloured curtain!

It's one of the planet's two largest "small" theatre extravaganzas (second only to the famous Edinburgh Fringe in size)!  Over 500,000 visitors and hundreds of performers from across the globe descend on festival city to create the magic of drama, comedy, one-person shows, musicals, and just plain bizarre freakshows!
 
Nowhere in this hemisphere can you find more sensation for your buck than the annual Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival. See the world's best theatrical performers, from stars to emerging talents, cascading you through 140 shows and unlimited realms of imagination.

• Over 1,000 performances from 146 groups
• 100% of revenue from ticket sales returned directly to the artists
• Began in 1982 – the first in North America

“Try to imagine 1,000 artists from around the world giving 1,200 performances of 140 productions on 30 stages in public places, all in one major city.  Mind boggling, but true!  This is Edmonton’s International Fringe Festival.”
What’s News in Canada, (Ottawa, ON), Spring/Summer 2002

“Think unjuried, uncensored, and 100 per cent original, and you’re ready for ‘fringe theatre.’  Edmonton’s International Fringe Theatre Festival helps thousands of artists bring their original works to an audience that is ready for new theatre experiences.”
“2003 Top 100 Events in North America,” Destinations, (Washington, DC), September 2002

EDMONTON INTERNATIONAL STREET PERFORMERS FESTIVAL

With magical clowns, the strongest woman alive, super-balloon artists, bizarre stilt walkers, face-painting, circus skills and more, there are so many free outdoor shows for kids your budget will have its own vacation. And if you're a grown-up who ever wanted to be the life of the party, check out amazing workshops in everything from juggling to hip hop. And don't forget the "Best of the Fest" family-friendly group shows with a different cast every night!

• As well as street performances has “Kid’s World” and “Be Your Own Busker” sections where you can learn the skills of face-painting, juggling and hip-hop dance
• Comedy Cares is where the cast members from the festival line-up use their diverse street talents to bring smiles, chuckles and giggles to patients, family and staff in local hospitals and long-term care facilities

"... the Street Performers Festival is inspired lunacy. What else can you do but giggle when a man juggles a chainsaw and a couple of cabbages, makes aerial coleslaw, and then wheedles a couple of bucks from the interior of your wallet magically into the interior of his hat? The continent's oldest - and many would say best - street performers festival is a showcase for the ancient venerable art of busking; that beguiling combination of obscure skills, amazing virtuosity, and shameless hucksterism."
Edmonton Journal

“How can you not fall in love with these performers? There's something so incredibly appealing about someone who can draw and maintain the attention of a crowd of strangers on a street corner. It takes a certain inner strength to be able to control your audience, inviting participation when it is needed and commanding complete silence when necessary. Ah yes, the street performer is the rebel of the entertainment world.”
VUE Weekly


FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Amy Wolski
Travel Media Relations Manager, External Relations 
780.969.0481
awolski@edmonton.com  

Bin Lau
Director of Communications, External Relations
780.969.0463
blau@edmonton.com

Jenifer Christenson
Executive Director, External Relations 
780.917.7890
jchristenson@edmonton.com