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"So, what do you, like, do in this city?"
"So, what do you, like, do in this city?"
This question has been posed to me many times before. As a disgruntled teenager, I found myself asking the same thing.
With many bitter winter months every year, it's easy to conclude that the majority of Edmontonians are shut-ins, eager to protect their vulnerable appendages from the cold. In my experience, this is not the case. There is a very special kind of energy generated when people are are so determined that they're willing to brave -40° temperatures to see their communities. Don't be fooled; this when the best, most intimate events take place.
A "this-could-all-be-taken-away-at-any-moment" attitude then bleeds into summer, where people don't waste a single sunny second. Every weekend is full of things to do for individuals, couples, friend groups, and families — this is when the Edmonton spirit roars to life and you can truly see the city in full swing.
YEG isn't boring, you're just not looking hard enough. Here is a list of newsletters, pages, and calendars that can help fill your schedule!
General Community Event Calendars
General Community Event Calendars
Many of these organizations have newsletters too, which is great if you're too lazy to check their webpages often.
Other:
A Community League is a volunteer, not-for-profit organization formed to meet the unique needs and interests of residents within a defined neighbourhood. Find which Edmonton community league you belong to (and the events they host) here.
Don't Ignore the event posting boards around downtown and Whyte avenue! (right)
Keep up with the zeitgeist (or learn some local history)
Keep up with the zeitgeist (or learn some local history)
Nightlife and Live Entertainment
Nightlife and Live Entertainment
Food/drink: 🍸 Notable cocktails |🍻 Beer Forward |🍷 Vino | 🍲 Interesting Bites | 🥨 Pub Fare
Food/drink: 🍸 Notable cocktails |🍻 Beer Forward |🍷 Vino | 🍲 Interesting Bites | 🥨 Pub Fare
Offerings: 🕺 Dancing | 🎭 Live Acts | 🎧 Cool DJs | 🎤 Karaoke | ✨ Atmosphere | ⛱️ Patio | ⛓️ Niche Community | 🎲 Games
Offerings: 🕺 Dancing | 🎭 Live Acts | 🎧 Cool DJs | 🎤 Karaoke | ✨ Atmosphere | ⛱️ Patio | ⛓️ Niche Community | 🎲 Games
North of the river
North of the river
Fu's Repair Shop ✨🍸🍲 ⛱️ (and Double Dragon ✨🎧🕺)
The Bower ✨🎧🕺
- House music on Saturdays
Red Star 🍻⛱️
Baijiu 🍸✨🍲
The Starlite Room 🎧🎭🕺⛓️ (and River City Revival 🍻🎭🥨)
The Common 🕺🎧🎭🍸 (and 99ten 🎧🕺🎭)
- (I'm told) the fish n' chips here are the last surviving remnant of Prairie Fish N Chips, the well loved and since-closed restaurant previously next door
Bar Bricco 🍷🍲✨🍸
Clementine 🍸✨🍲
- Always busy, nicest bathrooms in the city
- $12 cocktails on Tuesdays
CRAFT 🍻⛱️
- Most extensive selections of craft beer I've ever seen, huge venue
On the Rocks 🕺🎭🥨
- Thursday salsa nights
Azucar 🕺🎧🎤
- Free salsa lessons Saturdays at 9:30
Evolution Wonderlounge ⛓️🕺🎧🎭🎤
- Basically Edmonton's only gay bar
DOSC 🍲🍸✨
Sherlock's Downtown 🥨🎭⛱️
Bar Yarrow 🍸🍲
Alchemy 🍸✨⛱️
The Red Door 🍸🎭✨
- Speakeasy in The Art of Cake, 7PM Fridays and Saturdays
Ikki Sake Bar 🍷🍸✨🍲
Ice District 🎭🍸🍲🎲⛱️
Bündok 🍸🍷🍲
- Thursdays: free open stage starting 7:00PM
- Fridays: MacEwan Jazz students go absolutely ham starting 9:00PM
South of the river
South of the river
O'Byrnes 🕺🍻🥨⛱️
- Place on Whyte with the most consistently poppin dance floor
Union Hall 🎧🎭🕺
- Keep an eye out for their "free before 10PM with ticket reservation" shows
Biera 🍻🍲⛱️
- Notable live jazz and blues
Sugarbowl 🍻🥨✨⛱️
- Edmonton's best dive bar, bring a sharpie!
Pip 🍸🍲⛱️
The Next Act 🍻🥨⛱️
Sugar Swing 🕺🎭
- Lessons in swing, tap, balboa, jazz, flamenco, and house
- Social+lesson on Fridays and Saturdays (normally $14-$16)
The Buckingham 🕺🥨🎭
- Vegan pub food, alternative music
Black Dog Freehouse🕺🎭🎧⛓️⛱️
- Three levels
Soju 🎤🍲
- Korean-style karaoke bar with small rooms
La Petite Iza 🍷🍸🍲⛱️
Arbour 🍲🍸
- Get the radishes
Duggan's Boundary 🍻✨🥨🎭
- Best Irish pub imo
- Sweat hosts nu-disco/dance/house parties every second Saturday🕺🎧
Oceania Grill ✨🍸🍲
Spotlight Cabaret 🎭⛱️⛓️✨
The Glass Monkey 🍻🍸🍷🍲⛱️
Happy Beer Street 🍻⛱️🥨🍲
- Many of Edmonton's best breweries, all in the same neighbourhood!
- For the real yeehaw experience 🤠
- Alberta Ballet - last minute walk-up tickets for students for $40
- Edmonton Opera
Special interest pages: Northern Alberta Drum n' Bass 🎧🕺, Sapphic Ave ⛓️, House of Hush Burlesque ⛓️🎭, Stroll of Poets Society 🎭, Edmonton Chinatown Multi-Cultural Centre 🎭🎲, Common Ground Arts Society 🎭, Yeg Dancer (Latin dance events/workshops)🕺, Edmonton Bass Society 🎧🕺, United Bass Kollective 🎧🕺, Boodang (YEG and YYC) 🎧🕺, Edmonton Blues Society 🎭, Alt YEG Music Magazine 🎭🕺, Edmonton Story Slam (third Wednesday of every month) 🎭, Olive Reading Series 🎭, Absurd Collective 🎭⛓️, SZN EVENTS 🎧🕺
Edmonton-Based Bands/Musicians/Artists/Performers that deserve your support: Good Information, Misfortune Tellers, Roll the Bones, Jex Opolis, Ivy League, Caroline Stokes, Asiah Holm, The Stonehearts, The Dirt City Hot Club, Mallory Chipman & the Mystics, Stem Champ, Lucky Keith
RE: "Where are all the good nightclubs?"
Edmonton has some dedicated nightclubs (e.g. The Bower), but people seem to favour (1) bars with spaces that turn into dance floors (e.g. O'Byrnes) or (2) attending live shows/raves hosted at rotating venues, for which you'd buy tickets in advance. That's 'Berta for ya 🤷♀️
Active and Outdoors
Active and Outdoors
Sports:
Indoor and outdoor skating rinks
- Free drop-in times for indoor; outdoor is always free AFAIK. Check out this page for information about equipment rentals.
Rabbit Hill, Sunridge, Snow Valley, Edmonton Ski Club for skiing and snowboarding
- Deal days: Weeknights for Rabbit Hill, Monday for Sunridge, Tuesdays for Edmonton Ski Club
- Edmonton Ski Club also offers tubing
Outdoor and recreation centre pools for swimming
- For outdoor pools during peak months I recommend booking in advance
Wilson Climbing Centre, Boulders, Vertically Inclined, Blocs for rock climbing and bouldering
Gateway Lanes, Bonnie Doon Bowling Lanes for bowling
U of A Triathalon Club, Running Room, Fast Trax for track and field-type sports
Van Vliet Complex and Saville Community Sports Centre (programs, drop-in schedule)
Edmonton Sport and Social Club (sports leagues and tournaments)
Edmonton AllTrails page (for nice hiking routes in and around the city)
Activate (game-ified physical activity with friends)
Parks and picnic areas: City of Edmonton Website
Dance studios: FootNotes (ballroom and more), Sugar Swing (swing, balboa, tap, and more), Aradia (pole, aerial, dance), Cuban Movements, ETown Salsa (latin dance), Embrace (pole, barre, dance)
Specific Outing Ideas
Specific Outing Ideas
See something artsy at Metro Cinema
Hit up the Muttart Conservatory (they have a changing "feature" pyramid and lots of random events)
- Very accessible now with the Valley line
Walk through the Royal Alberta Museum or the Alberta Art Gallery
- RAM: free admission on Family Day and Alberta Culture Days
- AGA: free admission from 4 to 7pm on the last Thursday of every month
Buy a Coffee Pass and explore Edmonton's café scene
- Extra nice on a bike during the warmer months
Get a karaoke group together at Soju
Visit the weird little shops on Whyte ave (e.g. Junque Cellar)
Paint something to take home at Crankpots
- Studio fee waived on weekdays
Scope out the next Punk Rock Flea Market
Grab a hot drink and hang out at the Old Strathcona Farmer's Market (open Saturdays 8AM-3PM)
Try and fail to reserve a spot at a Stanley A. Milner Library community cooking class
- Hot tip: check for new event postings at 4PM on Fridays
Play some board games with friends (or strangers) at Hexagon
Do some urban exploration (at your own risk)
- Related: take your sweetheart to the abandoned boardwalk, iykyk
- The End of the World is now Keillor Point
- Stay tuned for Accidental Beach updates
- The AllTrails app will show you some places to find weird spots in the river valley
Go patio hopping when the weather is nice
- Garage sale-hopping also works in July/August: find a neighbourhood with at least two garage sale signs and then wander around to root out the rest
Have a near-death experience tobogganing on Gallagher Park Hill (or on one of the many other hills)
Swim and lounge at Oliver Outdoor Pool then grab ice cream nearby at Kind or Made by Marcus
Bike through the trails of Mill Creek Ravine
Follow the RUST MAGIC Mural Map
Parktake in the "Steel Wheels Sandwich"
- Start the evening at Steel Wheels for soju, go out dancing on Whyte, end evening at Steel Wheels for pizza and Korean takeout
Stargaze (for free!) Thursday nights at the U of A's Astronomical Observatory
Attend a 5-minute stories night from Edmonton Story Slam
Get involved with the Reuse Centre for item swaps or free upcycling classes
Meet the Green Onion Cake Man
Play Where's Waldo at the Bonnie Doon Edmonton Train Collectors Association Exhibition
Take on Happy Beer Street on foot (bonus points if you can get a group of your coworkers to do this with you)
Get your fortune told at the Russian Tea Room
Join a group of volunteers for the Capital City Cleanup (or lend a hand in other ways)
Go to Block 1912 and look in the furniture drawers and cracks in the walls
Play Edmonton Cryptids bingo
Lose all sense of time and place at the Old Strathcona Antique Mall (the "largest antique mall in Western Canada")
Grab a picnic site at Victoria Park and enjoy the scenery in the summer, or make bannock and skate the oval during the winter
Rave half-submerged in water at West Edmonton Mall's Soundwave
- Normally hosted 1-2 times per year
Pack a lunch and take a pilgrimage on the 4 WEM Bus to the hallowed Talus Balls
Randonaut in a neighbourhood you've never been to before and have your third eye opened
Sign up for an arts and/or crafts class offered by the City of Edmonton (reasonable prices and impressive variety)
Check out some of the "adults only" events at the Telus World of Science
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