River City Writer

Edmonton Poetry Festival: Now in it’s 2nd year, the Edmonton Poetry Festival is a week long poetry extravaganza. From September 17–23, poetry will flood the city—especially downtown. Events include a hip hop night, the Roar Lit Crawl (see below), and Leonard Cohen Nights.

The Roar Spoken Word Festival: The 3rd annual Roar Spoken Word Festival will be kicking ass on Friday, September 21. The Roar will take over downtown’s cafes and pubs, and turn them into rocking spoken word concert venues. Mics will be rocked, and minds will be blown. It will be the most intense 5 hours of performance poetry that you’ll witness this year.

Arts Alives! Kaliedo Festival: Head down to 118th Avenue on September 28 & 29 for the Arts Alive! Kaliedo Festival, sponsored by Arts on the Ave. The festival will bring musicians, performance artists, and visual artists to the Alberta Avenue (118 Ave) community for a huge showcase of local talent. With over 100 acts in total, this may just be the biggest arts festival in Edmonton.

I’ve been thinking that I’d like to do a nightclub, pub, and bar list, similar to the Edmonton Restaurant Guide that I’m working on (there should be some complete reviews posted in the coming days). I’ve already written an article about Union Hall, and I can think of a few other bars that I’d love to write about.

Despite having a few bars that I love, and would enjoy plugging on River City Writer, I’m not a huge bar-goer.

When I do go out, I tend to stick to the watering holes that I know best. I’ll try something new once in a while but, I’m less adventurous with bars than I am with restaurants. A drink is a drink, I guess, so I’ll stick with a crowd that I’m comfortable with, most of the time.

That’s why I need you to help me create the list.

I’ll do what I can to expand my nightlife exploration, but I need help from my readers if this list is going to be the best that it can be. Tell me some of your favourite bars, pubs, and nightclubs in and around Edmonton. If possible, give me a brief write-up about the place (1 paragraph should be sufficient, but feel free to write more), in case I don’t get to visit the place myself.

While we’re on the subject of reader-generated content, I’m still looking for places to add to the restaurant guide. If you’ve got a place that isn’t on the list yet, let me know about it, and I’ll visit it when I have a chance, and write a review.

The Labour Day long weekend marks the tragic end of summer in Champion City. While it’s not technically the end of summer, it might as well be. All of the summer festivals are over. The sky gets dark before 10pm. The cold slowly starts to creep back into the air (though, I do like the “crispness” of an autumn morning).

The beginning of autumn in Edmonton does, however, have some good points. To me, autumn means long, aimless walks. The river valley is great for this, though I actually prefer wandering around downtown with a hot cup of coffee and a good friend to chat with. Maybe it’s because I’m not-so-secretly in love with the concrete, but walking the Core with the leaves on the ground, and a scarf around my neck is one of my favourite things in the world.

Autumn also means that the CFL is in full swing. For some reason, I never really pay attention to football until the Labour Day Classic, even though the season actually starts in the summer. This year, I’ve paid enough attention to know that the Esks aren’t doing as well as they usually do. But, after last season, I’m not overly surprised. I blame the loss of Jason Maas (okay, not really, but it does seem like the team has gone downhill since he was traded to the Ti-Cats).

Even though the summer festivals are over, that doesn’t mean that Festival City is suddenly devoid of festivals in the fall. September brings with it the Edmonton Poetry Festival, as well as the Roar Spoken Word Festival (this year’s schedule was posted recently—check it out).

Let me know what you like to in Edmonton in the fall, and I’ll do a “round-up” style post in the near future, using your suggestions. Leave a comment, or send me an email to tell me what your favourite River City autumn activities are.