The Myer Horowitz Theatre is an old-school type of theatre; an all-purpose kind of place that could…read morebe used for academic lectures, ballet recitals, and rock concerts (as long as they aren't too rowdy). It is located in the Student Union Building at the University of Alberta. The staff are always super-friendly every time I've been here. The ushers, the bar staff - even the people who sell the band merch whom I don't think actually work here but still, the Horowitz's friendly atmosphere rubs off on them. The U of A advertises the Horowitz as having "a close, intimate view of the performers on stage." Unfortunately it provides a close, intimate view (and feel) of your neighbours too. The seats (all 720 of them) seem to be designed for people who are 5 foot one and weigh 120 pounds. It kind of sucks to have another human decompress beside you and flow into the space you paid for. It is not spacious like more modern venues such as the Winspear. So if you can't remember the last time you walked a kilometre and you think French Fries are a vegetable you'll hate it here. It won't help to buy two seats because of the non-retractable arm rests. The seats are situated on a slight ascent but it's not steep enough to give you an unobstructed view of the stage. In other words, if you enjoy staring at the backs of people's heads you'll love it here. The seats are slightly offset so they're not directly behind each other but it still sucks. Especially if you get a couple of lovebirds in front of you who insist on resting their heads against each other. There's a large waiting area outside the theatre to laze around in while you're waiting for the doors of the theatre itself to open. Note: The time given on your ticket for the doors opening is for the downstairs entrance from the SUB building to the waiting area - not for the theatre. This is probably an attempt to get people in the building earlier so they'll buy drinks. The Myer Horowitz has a cool historical vibe. Just sitting here I can see the ghosts of old men in grey tweed jackets smoking pipes and lamenting the fact that Canada never gave communism a try. I can also see radical punk rock bands playing here, diving off the stage and beating the shit out of their fans. Also lamenting that Canada never gave communism a try. *The above paragraph is for entertainment value only. The Myer Horowitz Theatre is not associated with the Communist Party of Canada nor is it haunted. (As far as I know.)

So Myer Horowitz is a great theatre, performing arts, music and otherwise venue. I have been here…read moremany a time over the years for special event (everything from Christmas parties for children to theatre performances with well known performers. And while the seats are beginning to show their age when it comes to comfort and size, the venue itself is rather well maintained. Staff are always great for events and this stage is quite large so it can support everything from dance to substantial sets and much more besides. The most recent event I attended here involved the venue not being entirely ready for our attendance when we arrived at the scheduled time, but otherwise the event went off seemingly without at hitch: the performance, lighting, and whatnot all went well. In the Students Union Building (SUB), this theatre venue is transit accessible, it has a manually operated elevator for accessibility, and there are nearby parkades and bicycle parking locations. There is an ample lobby which can be used for a myriad of purposes depending on the event hosted.

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!

Went to see a movie on Saturday with my brother. There were mice everywhere in the theater it was…read moredisgusting!! Couldn't even stay to finish the movie.

don't recommend I paid tickets to watch a movie for them to say it will take a week to refund, me…read moreand my sister were so excited to watch a movie for them to say to buy more well I wait for the refund doesn't make sense

Very expensive for very little food. Japanese Village sesame…read morebeef with rice was so small and not worth 4 tickets for a price of approx. $7.00 Also, the dish was very salty. Good venue but this will be last year I attend because the price does not match with portion size. Jennie

Hello Summer! Edmonton truly is Festival City whether it's Ice on Whyte or the ever so awesome A…read moreTaste of Edmonton! It doesn't get any better than wandering Churchill as the amazing smells waft from site to site. What to pick? What to choose? So many delicious eats and treats to try. Pro tip #1 NEVER GO ALONE. Always come in a group so that you can share and sample among friends. Pro tip #2 Buy your tickets in advance and save $10 on a sheet of 40. Follow them on Facebook, twitter, or on their website for the current details: http://tasteofedm.ca/ A Taste of Edmonton can also be an idea networking or teambuilding outing for colleagues. I've been lucky to participate in a Charity Cook Off here (and yes Judge's choice went to team Pookersons baby!) You can sign up for special VIP tent events in the evenings (perfect for a date night) or just wander around and people watch any time of day. You simply can't go wrong with YEG festivals. A Taste of Edmonton is where it's at in Summer YEG. Do not miss Canada's largest outdoor food festival!

I'm not very experienced at playing bingo in bingo halls, but I do know that I am waaay too slow,…read moreand inexperienced to use those daubers. You know, that ink filled thing that they dab on the numbers of the bingo card. Well anyway, when my partner and I got to the cashier, we asked her what the most popular game(s) were, and told her that we wanted in on it. We also told her we wanted a machine, because the machine does pratically everything for you. All you need to do, is scream out "bingo", if you got one. They have these super cool and friendly volunteers roaming the room selling addtional cards for different games. We had no clue what they were, but they were only a buck a card, so why not? The only thing was, we needed daubers to play. So off I went to the cashier to buy a couple, and we were ready to begin! As one would expect, I messed up my card trying to focus on the machine and that darn dauber. Not forgetting to mention that I yelled out "bingo" when all my machine was trying to tell me was I needed one more number. Who knew that the flashing number meant that, that was the number I needed? Hahaha, we had a good laugh! My partner wanted to crawl under the table until everything was over. Lol! This bingo hall is super clean, and the restrooms were exceptionally well maintained. They do have a snack bar, but nothing worthy of writing about. As for the employees and volunteers? They were stellar! Very friendly, patient and helpful. Thank you, Caesar's Bingo, for allowing me this experience! I had fun!

We had the urge to go play BINGO which neither of us has done in eons. It was a fun way to start…read moreour girls night. We both got 2 cards next time I think I'll only get one I had a hard time keeping up and trying to talk and catch up with my friend. Crazy how some people there had 3+ cards on the go. The staff was really nice and prompt to serve you. The board with the numbers that had been drawn had a few lights out. Didn't win this time but I'd definitely go again.

We came here for a little girl's birthday party. It was packed. There were a lot of people since it…read morewas on a Saturday. The arcade area was kid friendly but kind of pricey at $2-$3 for each game. I found the dark mini golf was a bit challenging for 3-4 year olds. The parents helped their kids. The staff were friendly and very good with the kids. I loved the separate party areas where you can enjoy cake and present opening with guests. I had moments where I couldn't see my son because it was so dark. My son said some of the decor was a bit too scary for him. It felt like Halloween. I could see what he meant that it would be scary for young kids. Overall, a cool place to host a party.

Such a fun place. We took my six-year-old daughter here for her birthday and she had a blast. The…read morestaff were very friendly. They also have arcade games and too large areas to host birthday parties.

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.

We spent a few hours at the museum before it closed. The first floor of the museum leads you to the…read morehistory of Alberta. Although this museum exhibit and artifacts are nicely displayed and seems to be of significance, the museum flow was haphazard and didn't guide you towards a narrative or chronology, which is kind of jarring. The descriptions throughout the museum themselves don't really dive deep and maybe seems more like it's geared towards school-age children. Had I just seen this part of the museum, I would've disliked the museum overall. The second floor with the natural history section was much better, with fossils and even some live exhibits (like the beautiful, healthy corals and the turtles, though they didn't seem as happy). I live learning about the animals that roamed the area, including the Edmontosaurus. I was kind of fatigued from all the taxidermied/animal models behind glass cases though. The minerals/gem exhibit was also pretty exquisite and there's even an interactive section about magnetic stones and meteorites. My favorite is probably the special exhibit on "Death: Life's Greatest Mystery," which I think did a wonderful job in portraying different customs revolving around death. I also like the Francophone exhibit, especially the audio exhibit. Overall, I enjoyed the majority of the exhibits and thought the museum was worth visiting.

It was only last year that I finally visited the Royal Alberta Museum (RAM) in it's "new" downtown…read morelocation. But since then I've visited 3 times, once for my birthday, once for a friend's birthday, and then again to see an exhibit on Orcas. The RAM is the largest museum in western Canada. There are several permanent exhibits including the Children's Gallery, the Bug Gallery, the Human History Hall, and the Natural History Hall. I didn't visit the Children's Gallery, cause I'm an adult without kids so that would be weird, but I did visit the other ones. The Bug Gallery is really cool if you love bugs, but even if you're not a big bug person the bugs are all in contained closures, and I thought was really interesting. My favourites were the two halls, which if you couldn't tell from the names deal with human history and natural history. The human history one goes through the history of the people who've lived in this area from the Indigenous peoples who have been here since time immemorial to European settlers, modern immigration, and present day. The natural history hall has the history of the different flora and fauna that have been in Alberta. This includes exhibits on dinosaurs, which if you've been in Alberta for any length of time you'll know we have a lot of fossils here. And there is also an exhibit on various minerals in Alberta and in Canada. I like shiny rocks so I liked it. Then there is a feature gallery and a changing exhibit. The feature gallery is smaller, but the changing exhibit (when one is in) is usually quite large. The changing exhibits I saw where the ones on Angkor Wat and Orcas (different times). Both were great exhibits, but I think they've changed now. The museum space is huge, and there's lots to see so give yourself lots of time. My downside to the museum is just that I don't live nearby so it's a bit of a pain to drive downtown and park (especially with construction). The LRT is nearby (I think Churchill is the closet station. The museum itself can also get really busy, especially on weekends or if a school field trip is in. But hey, I have fond memories of school field trips at the RAM in its old location in Glenora so I hope kids get good memories of the RAM in its new home. If you're planning to visit the RAM a few times you can get an annual pass. The other option is buy an Alberta History Pass, which will get you into a few different historic sites for a yearly fee. That's what I did. You can buy the pass at the RAM and it's pretty easy to get your money's worth if you come back for a couple of visits. Not sure when I'll visit again, but I'll definitely be back.