Ottawa Festivals

Perhaps Ottawa should be dubbed the “City of Festivals,” given the numerous events held here per season. To name just a few of them, there is Winterlude, the Ottawa Fringe Festival, West Fest, and the Ottawa Greek Fest.

There are well over 45 festivals, special events, and fairs that take place in Ottawa annually, with a variety that is sure to provide something for everyone.

Winterlude

Staged over three consecutive weekends in February, the annual Winterlude festival consists of more than 120 indoor and outdoor activities, which, after 20 years, attract over 1.2 million visitors to the Ottawa region annually. Events include: live music shows, professional figure skating performances, snow sculpting and ice carving competitions, the world’s largest skate-a-thon, and a bed race that draws crowds from miles around. In Gatineau, Jacques Cartier Park is transformed into a winter wonderland, the world’s largest children’s snow playground. Another feature is the downhill and cross-country skiing, including the Winterman and Winterwoman Sports Weekend, the 21-kilometre (13-mi) run that follows “Canadas discovery route” (Confederation Boulevard). World renowned, the event also is part of the prestigious world loppett (cross-country ski race) circuit. And, of course, always a highlight of Winterlude is skating on the Rideau Canal, featuring a “rink’ that stretches 7.8 kilometres (4.8 mi) from the Chateau Laurier to Dow’s Lake.

Ottawa Fringe Festival

This annual festival in June showcases local, national, and international performers and playwrights, some with shows touring other Fringe Festivals across Canada.

Ottawa Greek Fest

Every August, spend a few weeks of living “the Greek way.”

Ottawa International Animation Fest

The largest event of its kind in North America, this competitive festival showcases the best of cutting-edge, trend-setting animation as well as industry standards.

Ottawa International Busker Festival

Showcasing “five days of unorthodox entertainment,” the Busker Festival has some of the best musicians, jugglers, fire-eaters, storytellers, comedians, magicians, and mimes from Canada and around the world.

Ottawa Lumiere Festival

Ottawa’s nighttime festival, celebrating “the magic and mystical beauty of light” in New Edinburgh, with dance, music, poetry, and thousands of lantern.

West Fest

Westfest is Ottawa’s newest large-scale festival, a diverse celebration that includes, multidisciplinary arts, including music, performance art, literature, spoken word, media art, visual art, dance, theatre, and live animation. Starting Friday, June 12 through Sunday, June 14 an estimated 100,000 people will stroll through the community of Westboro Village in Ottawa. Join us on Richmond Road, between Golden Avenue and Island Park Drive. West Fest takes place on Richmond Road in Westboro, and shockingly enough, it is FREE.

For more information, see westfest.ca.

Ice Skating in Ottawa

Officially the world’s longest outdoor skating rink, the Rideau Canal stretches 7.8 kilometres (4.8 mi) of “skateway” from downtown Ottawa to Dow’s Lake near Carleton University – roughly the equivalent of 100 hockey rinks end-to-end. Skating on the canal remains one of the key elements of the Winterlude festival in February of every year, despite the fact that the changing temperatures have been shortening the skating season over the past few winters.

During Winterlude, various points along the canal include heated shelters, rest areas, change rooms, skate rentals, washrooms, picnic tables, and fire pits, as well as almost 40 sets of stairs along its length. Another place for free skating is the outdoor rink in front of Ben Franklin Place at 101 Centrepointe Drive (no hockey sticks, strollers, or human chains allowed on the ice).

If skating on the canal freaks you out (though it shouldn’t), there’s always the historic Minto Skating Club (733-5292) and Minto Skating Centre (ice rental, 733-7800) at 2571 Lancaster Road, where many an Olympian got her start (including figure skaters Barbara Ann Scott and Lynn Nightingale).

Checking Conditions

If you’re looking for current ski or skate conditions, the National Capital Commission offers information lines: Gatineau Park Information and Ski Conditions at 819-827-2020 or 1-800- 465-1867, and Rideau Canal Skateway Conditions at 239-5234.