by Athena Raypold
With streets littered with reds, browns, oranges and yellows, plus earlier sunsets and cool breezes, Edmonton is gorgeous in the fall. After typically hot and dry summers, many welcome the return of boot and jacket weather. To welcome Edmontonians to the new season, the city offers a variety of events and experiences to enrich your lives as you approach winter. [Photo credit: iStock.com/evgenyatamanenko]
The Prairie Gardens Adventure Farm, located about 30 minutes north of Edmonton, hosts an annual Haunted Pumpkin Festival. Providing fun for the whole family, the festival includes guided farm tours, puppet shows, haunted pumpkin tales’ theatre, pumpkin drumming circles, live folk music, magician performances and spooky Halloween characters like Gritch the Witch. You can also book flashlight corn maze adventures and Dark Skies programs, complete with campfires and marshmallow roasts for group events.
In keeping with the Halloween theme is the professional haunted house located downtown called Deadmonton. In its third year running at the old Paramount Theatre on Jasper Avenue, Deadmonton is wildly popular and only appropriate for kids aged 12 and older. A classic haunted house intended to scare the living daylights out of participants, Deadmonton is perfect for horror enthusiasts. This year, they’ve introduced Speed Passes for those wanting to avoid line ups on popular nights.
Fort Edmonton Park’s annual family friendly Halloween weekend, Spooktacular’s theme changes every year and includes a number of activities suitable for all ages. Spooktacular is a place to dress up and participate. This year’s theme is Penny Dreadful: the name of Victorian gothic stories like Frankenstein and Dracula. Each era offers different activities, with 1920s Street being the most family friendly, 1905 Street offering ghost stories and 1885 Street providing scarier stuff for the grownups.
New to Edmonton’s theatre festival scene is The Edmonton Clown Festival, held at the L'UniThéâtre at La Cite Francophone. Featuring Deanna Fleysher’s Butt Kapinski headlining the festival, there will also be two full-length shows, a double bill, two clown short series, a cabaret and a free panel called “What is a Clown?” Tickets are available for a full access pass or individual events.
Canada’s only literary non-fiction festival, LitFest is held annually in October and is in its tenth year. Events span the course of eleven days with panels, talks, workshops and story slams in a variety of locations from the headlining event at the Winspear Centre to the Story Slam at The Mercury Room. Showcasing authors and writers from Edmonton and around the world, this year’s LitFest topics range from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, feminism and immigrant experiences to living with cancer, food writing and politics. Headlining this year’s festival is Neil Pasricha, author of The Book of Awesome. Also featured are authors Lindy West, Andi Zeisler, Teva Harrison and Jael Richardson, as well as Canadaland founder and journalist Jesse Brown.
For 10 days every fall, the Edmonton International Film Festival offers a cinematic festival about discovery. Edmonton’s feature film festival includes 40 feature films and more than 75 short films, all of which premiere at the festival. Festival goers can choose from a vast selection of cinema from all over the world, including Studio A: Spotlight on Alberta, a package of short films celebrating Alberta.
An annual festival put on by Alberta Beer Festivals, Oktoberfest is a sampling event that features both local and Bavarian breweries along with local food, authentic Oktoberfest music, dancers and games at the Expo Centre at Northlands. Participating breweries include Edmonton’s own Alley Kat, Situation and Yellowhead Brewing, among many other Canadian and international craft brewers.
For a beautiful opportunity to disconnect from technology and reconnect with nature, check out Dark Sky Campfires. Elk Island National Park, just east of Edmonton, is offering an opportunity to gaze upon the stars and the Northern Lights away from city lights. Sit around a campfire with a Parks Canada interpreter for a night of storytelling, hot drinks and the prairie sky at dusk.
An Edmonton craft festival showcasing mostly local and uniquely handmade arts, crafts, and design (not to mention some plants, music and food), the Royal Bison celebrates both independent and local creative works. Plus, among their varied selection of goods are items for men – yes, men! While most craft fairs tend to focus on the feminine, the Royal Bison provides an eclectic array of items that span genders and tastes. If you miss the fall festival, there’s also another fair in spring.
A corn maze cut into a 15-acre field, Edmonton’s Corn Maze provides fun for kids and adults alike. If you’re looking for a fun, outdoor adventure to take your kids or pet on, the corn maze takes about an hour. While most everyone gets a bit lost in the maze, they’ve designed it as an interactive activity with a passport and games to help you find your way through. Other attractions at the farm include pedal carts, the jumping pillow, the corn cob express and an animal farm.
Between the opportunity to enjoy the cool fall weather outdoors, to celebrate Halloween or Oktoberfest or to indulge in the city’s cultural events, Edmonton offers a wealth of experiences to enjoy this fall.
