Arts Roundup
Aug. 27, 2026

Music

• The University of Alberta has reached an agreement to permanently transfer its historic 1978 Casavant pipe organ to the Netherlands Reformed Congregation of Picture Butte in southern Alberta, as Convocation Hall undergoes renewal. The organ, installed as a war memorial, will be professionally dismantled, stored for about 18 months, and reinstalled as the centrepiece of the congregation's new facility, where it will be played weekly and formally rededicated.
• The Beaumont Music Festival is asking its community to vocalize their support by Sept. 6, after which it will appear before council to address debts accrued due to hiccups with permits and a weather-related event cancellation.
• Bent Stick Brewing will host a two-day festival to celebrate its 10th anniversary. Aladean Kheroufi, Von Bieker, and Billie Zizi are among the 14 artists and groups set to perform at the brewery's dock on 78 Avenue on Aug. 29 and 30.
• An Edmonton-based experimental artist is questioning CKUA's decision to stop knowingly airing AI-assisted music. Sculptor Ryan McCourt, who makes music under the name The Synthesist using AI tools including Suno, said the policy gives artists an incentive to hide their methods rather than being transparent. CKUA content director Arianne Smith-Piquette said the station is developing a formal AI policy, adding that human creation must remain at the core of what it promotes.
• The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra will return to the Hawrelak Park Amphitheatre for Symphony Under the Sky from Sept. 3 to 7, after several years of renovations forced the series to alternate venues. The five-night run includes two programs: "Beethoven's Fifth," featuring classical music, and "Hollywood at Hawrelak," with music from Titanic, The Lion King, and other movies.
• Alberta has appointed Jennifer Venance as its first music commissioner, a new role created to support and grow the province's music industry. Venance has been a musician and music educator for more than 20 years, most recently as director of K-12 curriculum and French education with Alberta Education and Childcare.
• CKUA has released a Hidden Track podcast session with July Talk, featuring Leah Fay Goldstein and Edmonton-rooted Peter Dreimanis, recorded live in CKUA's Studio A. The episode celebrates the 10th anniversary of an album that went gold and won a JUNO, as well as the band's upcoming cross-country tour and a previously unreleased album recorded a decade ago.
• Singer-songwriters Dahlia Wakefield and Kevin Frey discussed their music partnership on the Reluctantly Podcast.
• RANGE magazine spoke with Arlo Maverick, Kreesha Turner, K-Riz, and Mouraine about the evolution of Edmonton's hip-hop scene. The feature looks ahead to the Music for Mavericks 20th anniversary concert and pop-up museum at the Old Strathcona Performing Arts Centre.
• Edmontonians are mourning the death of Dolly Parton, who died at 80 at her home in Nashville. Edmonton drag queen Vanity Fair said it "feels very personal, even though I've never met the woman," noting that Parton has inspired many in the drag community. Parton's last Edmonton show was in 2016.

Visual arts

• ELIXR Simulations is running a playtest of a student-made augmented reality experience applied to Busyrawk's mural called Azure Dragon of the East in Chinatown on Aug. 29. "The mural transforms, where you actually see the dragon come to life and then moving throughout the space," ELIXR's CEO Andrea Urbina told Taproot. The project was funded by a $140,000 grant from the province's Northern and Regional Economic Development Program to advance ELIXR's tech and train young talent.
• Toronto-based artist Sanaz Mazinani has installed 22 cloud-inspired sculptures at O‑day'min Park for a new public artwork called A Visible Mass. The sculptures draw from photographs of Edmonton's skies submitted by residents and use mirrored surfaces and abstract forms to invite reflection on land, freedom, and community, Sanaz told the Edmonton Arts Council.

Theatre and dance

• The Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival wrapped up its 45th edition with a record 825,000 visitors to its festival sites. This year's 209 indoor productions sold more than 142,000 tickets, including 550 sold-out shows, and returned $1.52 million to artists, up from $1.47 million last year. The festival announced it would be renaming the Studio Theatre to the Brian Paisley Laboratory to honour the festival's founder, who died in June. A commemorative mural is also being commissioned in his honour. The festival's holdover series continues until Aug. 29, with tickets still available for LUMBER, 650 Light Years Away, MURDER PLOT!, Being Norwegian, Between the Covers, Three Ladies, PLAYS BY [BLANKS], and yegDND, plus a special rendition of SWAN? as it celebrates its 100th performance.
• Theatre Network artistic director Jenna Rodgers spoke to CKUA about the company's upcoming 52nd season, The Roxy Remixed.
• Edmonton's Chinatown hosted the Pan American Lion Dance Championship and the Canadian National Lion Dance Championship at Kinistinâw Park as part of the Edmonton Dragon Festival, with 19 teams from Canada, Mexico, Panama, the U.S., and Trinidad and Tobago competing.

Books and publishing

• Strathcona County author Mandy Eve-Barnett used three unusual real-life news stories as the basis for The Giving Thief, a coming-of-age suspense novel about a teenager whose impulsive decision affects his family and community. Eve-Barnett, who has published 12 books since 2011, will launch the book at the Words in the Park Book Fair on Sept. 5.
• Crystal Gail Fraser and Sara Komarnisky spoke to U of A Reads about Talk Treaty to Me: Understanding the Basics of Treaties and Land in Canada. Their book aims to make treaties accessible to a broad audience.
• The Great Gathering Place, written by Naomi McIlwraith and illustrated by Onedove, is at the top of the fiction books on the latest Edmonton bestseller list from the Book Publishers Association of Alberta.

Screen industries

• The Provincial Archives of Alberta is hosting its 38th annual Film Night at Metro Cinema on Sept. 18. Braden Cannon, private records archivist, spoke to the Moving Radio podcast about the programming, which will highlight four films by Tom Radford, followed by a Q&A with the acclaimed filmmaker.
• Game Con Canada organizer Chris Meilleur said the inaugural North American Games Industry Summit resulted in seven Canadian developers landing publishing deals, adding that next year's event will expand from 55 to 250 booths. The 2026 con drew 34,000 unique attendees — up from 15,000 in 2024 — and signed a contract to stay in Edmonton through 2031. The hosts of the Good Game Edmonton podcast said the convention has been compared to high-profile events such as the Montréal International Game Summit and the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
• Edmonton Expo organizers say limited non-stop air service between Edmonton and Los Angeles has contributed to four of 30 scheduled celebrities cancelling ahead of the Sept. 18 to 20 event. In a statement, the Edmonton International Airport said there are six direct flights to Los Angeles, and it "remains focused on strengthening Edmonton's connections to Los Angeles and other key markets."

Happenings

Here are some events coming up soon:

• Aug. 27: Patio Series - Marcus Trummer starting at 6pm at La Cité francophone
• Aug. 27: Plaza Series: Say You Knew Them When! The Return of Amplify and Halfway Home starting at 7pm at Arden Theatre
• Aug. 27: 650 Light Years Away starting at 7pm at Fringe Theatre Arts Barns
• Aug. 27: The Sad Saga of the Edmonton Interurban Railway starting at 7pm at Grindstone Theatre.
• Aug. 28: Boots and Hearts West starting at 3pm at Fan Park
• Aug. 28: Being Norwegian starting at 7pm at Varscona Theatre
• Aug. 29: Lino Carving and Printing Workshop with Hands on Creative starting at 10am at Downtown Farmers' Market
• Aug. 29: Craft for YEG in the Park starting at 10am at O-day'min Park Pavilion
• Aug. 29: Bentiversary: Day One starting at 5pm at Bent Stick Brewing
• Aug. 29: The Last 1.5 Librarians North of Lethbridge starting at 9pm at Grindstone Theatre
• Aug. 30: Pints & Pages: Cowboy/Small Town/Contemporary Romance Edition starting at 1pm at Rig Hand Distillery
• Aug. 30: Mural and Food Tour - 124 Street starting at 5pm at Delavoye Chocolate Maker
• Sept. 1: Recycled Collage Self Portraits with Hannah Gelderman starting at 6pm at Alberta Craft Council
• Sept. 1: Thoughtful Tuesday Film Screening: Reimagining Safety starting at 6pm at Earth's Refillery Coop

And here are more to keep in mind:

• Sept. 12: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers In Concert at Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
• Sept. 15: CBC Radio's The Debaters at Horowitz Theatre
• Sept. 16: Intro to Hybrid Publishing & Wild Skies Press online

Visit the Taproot Edmonton Calendar for many more events in the Edmonton region.