Love love Love the Northern Alberta International Children's Festival!…read more This was the 35th Year and butterfly themed - my FAVOURITE look yet! The main stage has free acts and music everyday right next to St. Albert Place and the Library (yay for air conditioning and inside washrooms). The festival is spread out all along the river bank to Lions Park and downtown St. Albert. Festival Admission is free; though, most activities/shows range from $3-$11 with tickets you buy in advance. There are a few activities usually sponsored by businesses like Enmax and SaveOn as well as street performers wandering around. Parking is nonexistent or close to it so take advantage of the free transit bus through St. Albert transit from St. Albert Centre (mall). Love to watch the kiddos perform and really appreciate that our local schools get to visit every year! Can't wait for next year!

Went to see Alex Cuba (CANADIAN!!). Nice venue, cozy and comfy seats. Nice to park somewhere you're…read morenot taking your life in you hands. Saw Liaila Biali last Feb. I'll definitely be back.

we enjoyed it immensely such a nice theatre. so easy to access so clean an friendlyread more

For the most part, I love the fringe. There's loads of shows. Local artists feel well supported…read moreand empowered and its generally well organized and very well attended.... but this was the first year I brought my kids to the Kids Fringe and it was disappointing. To begin with, it wasn't organized well for ages.... there was a booklet that the kids could take around the activities to get stamped.... my 4 year old and 1 year old were too young to understand the concept and my 7 year old wasn't allowed into many of the activities because he was too old and he was bored stiff at many of the others. The fossil digging was pretty cool - everyone enjoyed this. The Box fort zone was highly anticipated.... and highly disappointing.... my front yard on trash day would be more exciting to play in. As pictured, it was a few boxes that were collapsed and largely falling apart.... there was so so much potential for this event.... but it was completely unsupported. We'll continue to support the main fringe festival, but we'll be looking for other activities for our kids.

I love everything about the fringe except the food. You can keep the disappointing 9$ Philly…read morecheesesteaks, but give me so many plays, give me terrible recommendations from artists and promoters, give me unexpected theatre gems that look like bombs from descriptions and names, give me mostly terrible merchandise to purchase with enough neat stuff to keep you looking, give me cheesy and entertaining street performers, give me costumes, racy or not, to grab your attention, give me that sea of humanity in the heart of old Strathcona. It's a whirlwind, you'll laugh, you may cry, you may wonder why it is so humid, hot or cold, you may wonder why there are so many zombie plays (much more last year!). But it's fun and is never a dull moment ... And it means summer is almost over. Enjoy it for what it is. Edmonton at its best! Just a few words of advice. I've NEVER seen an exceptional one man show and zombie show + comedy usually = entertaining. Happy fringe-ing!

Absolutely wonderful place to hang out all day with the kids. Can be a little crow, bring ear…read moreprotection or quiet time activities for sensitive people.

Fun for kids and adults. Amazing imax theater. Good food at cheap prices in cafeteria. Nice clean…read morefacilities. Always entertaining. I have a annual pass to this place to watch movies and enter exhibits. It's totally worthwhile because If you go during the weekdays you almost have the place to yourself or just before closing too. I like the space exhibit which actually has a peice of the moon on display. But there are tons of interactive games and puzzles that most adults play too (some are still challenging for me for the first time). There is a cool body exhibits to explore which is cool if it's your first time there to see how your body works and how healthy you are. There's also a giant play are in 2 parts of the center. One one main floor and second floor. So the kids have plenty of place sto burn off their excess energy. I could stare at the ball thing thatis ancient for hours bc that's what I used to do as child mesmerized by the journey that little ball takes. I would highly recommend watching the imax movies here because usually the only last 2 rows are sold out so there's alot of space in between people. Staff are friendly and there's alot of areas to just eat if you pack your own lunch. Annual members get a 10% discount which is really nice too! I personally think the roving exhibits are a perfect date night since there's alot to do or talk about. And situated in west downtown there's alot of good places to eat nearby. I think edmontons telus center is better than the over busy and crowded ones in vancouver or calgary. With alot more to do. I think edmontonians take this place for granted.

I took my mother to a Valentine's Date showing here the past weekend to see Valentine Train!…read more First of all, LOVED loved LOVED the theatre made to be a replica of the original. From the pictures on the walls to the vintage curtain to the the replica windows, it was like a movie set! I did find it a tad odd that we waited in the lobby for the doors to open until 810PM when the website had said show at 8PM but none the less it was great! The accoustics and visual inside was perfect and you were even allowed to bring in drinks or snacks purchased from the goody stand which included old fashioned favourites like flavoured candy sticks (think candy canes without the curve). The intermission was the perfect length of time. Seating was first come, first serve. The seats themselves were a little uncomfy - I'd like a modern update to the chairs perhaps :-) And let's not forget how cute it is driving into Fort Edmonton Park (my first time there if you can believe it!). Even though the park protion was closed, it was cute walking past the old fashioned shop fronts. There is a hotel there open year round called Hotel Selkirk which offers date night packages and dinner. It is a reconstruction of the 1920's hotel originally located on Jasper Avenue. Check them out at: http://www.fortedmontonpark.ca/hotel-selkirk/ I admittedly have not eaten there but the pictures look divine! Their website mentions weekly Sunday Brunch as well as dining events like Murder Mysteries! Yes Please! I can't wait to come back in the summer to take the whole experience in with the fam jam.

Tonight I went to the Capitol Theatre, which is theatre in Fort Edmonton Park. It was completed…read morelast year (I believe) and made to look like the original Capitol Theatre that was in Edmonton in the 1920's. While Fort Edmonton Park is only open during seasonal months (May to October) and for special occasions the Capitol Theatre is open at various times throughout the year when the Capitol Theatre is putting on a production. I should say this is a live theatre (as in plays and musicals) but apparently during regular Fort Edmonton Park dates/times they show a historic movie about Edmonton called "Northern Lights" that's free with park admission. During the off-season when a production isn't on the theatre can be rented out for group functions, which would be kinda neat. The outside of the theatre, from the parking lot at least, looks like just another grey cement building. I have to admit that kinda saddened me. I mean the Hotel Selkirk is right next door, and looks very lovely with its brickwork. I don't know maybe the hotel Selkirk isn't made of real brick, but it looks real. The Capitol Theatre has a lovely front facade that looks like a theatre from the 1920's. A bright marquee, a lovely wood panelled box office, vintage movie posters. It totally sells the part. Except for the fact you turn your head two inches and you can see the rest of the building is an ugly grey cement box. It's a bit disappointing that no one sprung the little bit extra to make the whole building look nice. So the disappointing part out of the way, like I said the front of the theatre is very nice, and the inside is nice as well. The theatre is done up in an Art Deco style. The lobby has framed posters of the original theatre, and other historic theatres in Edmonton. Plus there are posters from some of the plays and movies that were originally shown around Edmonton. If you're like me and you love vintage movie posters it was a pretty cool thing. The actual theatre where the stage of was lovely. It sort of reminded me of the Cannon Theatre in Toronto. Definitely not the same size, but there was that same Art Deco kind of style. The theatre looked like it could hold a couple hundred people, so it's not too big. The seats just look like any seat you might see in a theatre, but they're actually quite comfortable for a theatre seat. Trust me. I love theatre, but I've been to shows where I start fidgeting after 20 minutes because the seats are so uncomfortable. The Capitol Theatre seats were very nice. I saw "The Next Chapter", a Neil Simon play about a widowed man and a divorced woman. It was kinda funny, kinda cute, lots of snappy dialogue (Neil Simon seems to write snappy dialogue well), a little more dramatic than I expected. But I enjoyed it. The theatre was maybe half full, but to be honest I completely forgot that Fort Edmonton Park had a theatre until I was doing research for a school project. The price is very reasonable. Students (with ID) and seniors get tickets for $20, a regular adult admission is $28. The play I saw wasn't appropriate for the under 12 crowd so I don't know how much a regular kids ticket would cost. I do know that they will put on kids shows, because they're going to do The Velveteen Rabbit in December. The theatre is very nice (except the back part outside). The show was good (although live theatre can vary), and the ticket price was reasonable. Another bonus to seeing a show at the Capitol Theatre is getting to see part of Fort Edmonton Park in the evening, after a snow fall. It was quiet and quite pretty.

Nice intimate theater just off of Whyte Ave. No bad seats, great concession with local beers and…read moreother drinks available. Good for immerging artists. We were there for "Oh Christmas Tree" which was a fun play for immerging artists. I was in a wheelchair because I broke my foot, and they were quite accommodating. And free parking is a plus.

I love the closeness and intimacy of this venue. Every seat is a great seat so close to the action…read more Staff was friendly and extroverted on the night of my visit. Bar service available and not overpriced. Theatre network hosts a great selection of plays and I highly recommend the current show "What a Young Wife Ought to Know". Bravo

My first Theatre Sports experience was phenomenal and I can't believe the value for the money!…read moreAlso, maybe I was a bit spoiled: I attended their 30th anniversary, so alumni were present, which included celebrities like the Kokanee commercial guys and hometown-boy-done-good Nathan Fillion (if you do not know who he is, we can't be on speaking terms). Though, I feel slightly blasphemous by saying the locals did a wee bit better than Captain Malcolm during the "competition?" Makes me so proud of our local theatre scene! At any rate, soooo much fun watching improv teams compete against each other with audience suggestions. It's a relatively small theatre, so seats at the back (where my friends and I were situated) still had a great view. It's a first-come, first-served seating so if you're enthusiastic to get better seating, come early. After such a rousing evening, I have to say I've become a convert. Will definitely attend again.

I mentioned Theatre Sports in my review of the Varscona but it deserves its own attention…read more Theatre Sports at the Varscona is the best way to spend a Friday night in Edmonton, hands down. Not only does it support local talent and the arts, it really is the funniest stuff I have ever seen. What makes theatre sports different from Chimprov? Theatre Sports is a competition, Chimprov is not. Theatre Sports presents 2 comedy troops at a time (2 in the first half of the show and 2 different ones after the intermission) and they challenge each other to different tasks. They still follow basic improv rules and ask the audience for suggestions which it makes it even better because the comedy becomes interactive. They have a host for theatre sports (also the judge when needed to be) and he is hilarious! His name is Julian and I love love love him! The host sometimes changes at intermission so that Julian can partake in the actual Theatre Sports, which is always a treat. Theatre Sports goes from 11pm-1am on Friday nights at the Varscona. It only costs $10 and, believe me, you won't be wasting your money. Make sure to come a bit early though because they sell out fast! Theatre Sports is honestly one of my favorite things about this city and I want the rest of Edmonton to discover it for themselves!

This haunted house runs through October 31, 2013. It has been running for a number of years at…read morehalloween. This year is their biggest year so far. It is better than the spooktacular haunted houses this year. You have to go through one at a time! That's right you are on your own!!! And there are live actors inside...hidden in narrow corridors and dark alleys. It's indoors and recommended for ages 10 and over. It runs from 6:00pm to 10:00pm. The first hour is toned down for under 10. They charge $4 that goes to the community league, but definitely worth it for us.