Events in Canada
Okanagan |
Winter Festival Of Wine
This event takes place in January, and is considered the most unique of all the Okanagan wine festivals, which features British Columbia's Canadian Ice Wine. The event takes place at Sun Peaks Resort, near Kamloops BC, where you can also take in that much needed winter ski vacation ;-)
Upcoming Okanagan Winter Wine Festivals:
- 2010 - Jan 16-24
- 2011 - Jan 19-23
- 2012 - Jan 18-22
- 2013 - Jan 16-20
- 2014 - Jan 15-19
- 2015 - Jan 14-18
Spring Wine Festival
This festival takes place during the first ten days in May each year, and celebrates the upcoming grape growing season.
Near the end of April, spring has usually sprung already, fruit trees and flowers are budding, and the Interior British Columbia weather is nice and warm, especially in the South Okangan Valley. There are generally over 100 events to take in over this weekend event, and you can visit most wineries as they open their doors for a new season.
Upcoming Okanagan Valley Spring Wine Festivals:
- 2010 - Apr 30-May 9
- 2011 - Apr 29-May 8
- 2012 - May 4-13
- 2013 - May 3-12
- 2014 - May 2-11
- 2015 - May 1-10
Okanagan Summer Wine Festival
This event is held during the second weekend in August, every year, at Silver Star Resort near the city of Vernon BC. |
Victoria |
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Victoria Highland Games and Celtic Festival – For the Scots and Celtic lovers, and those who love a good party! May 16-17 2009 –
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Victoria Day Parade – a parade to celebrate the Queen for whom our fair city is named. - Holiday Monday 3rd weekend in May
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Uno – May 21 – 31 2009. Canada’s live singular theatre event – like the Fringe, but with solo artists.
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Swiftsure Weekend – May 23-25th. Some of the best sailing around. Check it out this weekend! A magnificent sight!
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Victoria Jazz Festival is one of the highlights of the year. June 26 – July 5 2009, the full line up of world-class musicians will be announced at the end of April – book now to ensure a memorable experience!
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Victoria Pride Week – June 28 – July 5. The Pride society hosts year-round events – check their website for dates and activities.
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Moss Street Paint In – July 18, 2009. Come and see some of Victoria’s best and most intriguing visual artists – sponsored by the Victoria Art Gallery and TD Bank, this is the Paint In’s 23rd year.
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Symphony Splash – Held annually on the first weekend in August, the Victoria Symphony plays on a barge in the inner harbour. Last year there was a record 40,000 who attended.
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Victoria’s Dragon Boat Festival – One of Victoria's most popular summer events, the Victoria Dragon Boat Festival is a remarkable combination of culture and sport. Showcasing our world-renowned inner harbour, this is the only dragon boat festival in North America to take place in a working harbour. August 14, 15, 16th 2009.
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Victoria Fringe Festival – world renowned, the Fringe Theatre Festival happens all over the world – from Edinburgh to Toronto – come check out Victoria’s Fringe!
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Vancouver Island Blues Bash – blues and jazz at the beginning of September, a great way to welcome the fall.
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Vancouver |
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Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival
April
A weeklong event, the International Wine Festival features dozens of seminars, tastings and food pairings with wines from all over the world. This event is so popular that many of the sessions sell out in advance. Don’t miss the grand International Festival Tasting that takes place Thursday–Saturday nights and features more than a dozen Canadian selections added to the mix of U.S., European, South American and Austrian imports. It’s a prime chance to compare the local juice to the internationally acclaimed vino.
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Tourism Vancouver’s Dine Out Vancouver
April/May
It’s not uncommon for a city to hold a restaurant week or two each year, where local eateries set affordable prix fixe menus and local foodies snap up reservations quicker than a professional speed eater swallows hot dogs. Vancouver adds a few unique twists to its annual Dine Out event. The two-week affair, sponsored by Tourism Vancouver, has restaurants set one of three price points for a three-course meal -- $18, $28 or $38 -- ensuring that regardless of budget, there are great culinary options. Not to mention, there are a few giveaways that can net diners a meal a week for a year or an all-expenses-paid trip aboard Rocky Mountaineer for two and the server they nominate for the “I Love My Server” prize as part of Dine Out’s Best Bite Awards.
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Bard on the Beach
June/September
Shakespeare is the world’s great playwright, and his words have lived on in countless community theatres, festivals and various other productions over the centuries. Bard on the Beach is one of the largest nonprofit, professional Shakespeare companies in Canada. Each summer it produces dozens of performances in beautiful Vanier Park. With two stages, including the 520-seat Main Stage tent that provides striking mountain views, the festival offers classic theatre to tourists and Vancouverites alike. And they’re welcoming it with open arms: The 20th iteration in 2009 brought more than 90,000 visitors. This year’s festival (June 3-Sept. 25) features classics such as “Henry V,” “Much Ado About Nothing” and “Cleopatra,” as well as lesser-known plays on the smaller Douglas Campbell Studio Stage
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Vancouver International Jazz Festival
June/July
For the past quarter century, an exceptional collection of jazz, funk, Latino and fusion music has taken over parks, concert halls, clubs and other venues each summer in downtown Vancouver. The Vancouver Jazz Festival and the summer’s signature music festival is expecting more than 1,800 musicians to play for more than a half million people. “There’s not a jazz festival in the world that can touch it -- 10 days of non-stop, unadulterated joy,” wrote Paul de Barros in the Seattle Times. There are even 130 free concerts, including the Gastown Jazz street festival on opening weekend.
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Celebration of Light on English Bay
July
Sometimes English Bay needs a little extra colour -- like the type provided by fireworks. We’re not talking about everyday fireworks, though. The Celebration of Light doesn’t do typical. It does extravagant. This four-day, international, pyro-musical competition displays the best fireworks in the world for the more than 1 million people lining the shores of the bay watching the brilliant explosions set to music.
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Vancouver Pride Parade
August
More than 600,000 people came to the Vancouver Pride Parade in 2009 to celebrate diversity and the city’s LGBT community. This parade started as a small protest through Davie Village in 1978 but is now a full-scale party that draws people from all over the world, spans 20 blocks and celebrates Vancouver’s lively gay community. Colourful floats compete for prizes such as Best Little Float, Brightest Rainbow and Sin-sational Crowd Stimulators. The 2010 parade on Aug. 1 will start at Robson and Thurlow streets and finish at the Sunset Beach festival site. The parade can be a bit wild, which may be a little much for children.
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Vancouver International Fringe Festival
September
Don’t take the name of the Vancouver International Fringe Festival to heart. The theatre at Fringe isn’t all the way out of the realm of popular culture. Rather, the point of the festival is to be inclusive to the arts community. Basically, there are no limits or censorship of ideas or scripts. Expect profanity and edge in one performance and something more traditional in the next. This festival is British Columbia’s largest theatre gathering each year, including more than 400 performances from 65 groups over 11 days. Venues are scattered throughout the city and include the Granville Island Stage, Performance Works and Waterfront Theatre.
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Vancouver International Film Festival
October
There are a ton of fantastic reasons to attend the Vancouver International Film Festival. We like this one: It’s big, as in one of the five largest in all of North America. In 2009, the festival saw nearly 150,000 attendees and 400 films from 75 countries. That’s simply huge. The fest features big-name movies, plus many undiscovered gems. It is also the largest showcase in the world for Canadian films, as well as for East Asian films outside of Asia.
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Bright Nights in Stanley Park
November/December
Don’t bother stringing up a few hundred holiday lights on your house. There are professionals hanging millions of lights each year in Stanley Park as part of Bright Nights. These are likely to get a few more oohs and awes out of the kids than your meager showing. Best of all, the light display, a holiday tradition since the early 1990s, is free, although there is a small price for tickets to certain parts of the park, including the Bright Nights Train and Children’s Farmyard ($9 for adults and $6 for kids and seniors).
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Calgary |
Another exciting Calgary Stampede is fast approaching! Whether you’re returning for the ninety-ninth time or you’re a newcomer to Stampede, we’re here to help you get the most out of your Stampede getaway.
The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth is waiting for you, July 8-17, 2011. We can’t wait to see you!
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Banff |
Banff Mountain Festivals
The Banff Centre
Banff Mountain Film Festival
The Banff Mountain Film Festival has become the premier event of its kind in the world.
The Banff Mountain Film Festival showcases the best films worldwide in mountain subjects, including alpinism, culture, environment, and sport.
And it attracts the best in mountaineering, adventure filmmaking, and extreme sports as presenters and speakers.
From over 300 films entered into the competition, the top 50 to 60 films are screened during the festival. An international jury awards prizes for the best films in the categories of climbing, sport, environment, culture, short, and feature-length.
Banff Mountain Book Festival
Each year, running concurrently with the Film Festival, the Banff Mountain Book Festival brings the spirit of outdoor adventure and the tradition of mountain literature to Banff, uniting writers, publishers, editors, photographers, and readers.
For more information: www.banffmountainfestivals.ca
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