Whether you want to see tall ships or big motorcycles, hear The Strumbellas or “philoso-folk,” or watch pow wow dancers or fireworks, there’s a festival or event for you to enjoy this week, in and around Ottawa. Happy road tripping!
Mark National Indigenous Peoples Day in Ottawa, Carleton Place or Montreal
Tuesday, June 21, is National Indigenous Peoples Day, which in turn is part of National Indigenous History Month (all through June). All over the region, there are opportunities to mark the occasions.
The Summer Solstice Indigenous Festival (June 21 to 26) has moved to a new location this year, Mādahòkì Farm (4420 West Hunt Club Road, Ottawa). The video above gives you a taste of what you can expect. The festival offers a packed schedule of activities and attractions, including craft workshops, the Competition Pow Wow, pony rides, movies under the stars, storytelling, quillwork and canoe-making demonstrations, an artisans’ marketplace and food vendors.
General admission is free, but you need to register in advance online. On Friday, June 24, there’s a long-table dinner featuring dishes by two Indigenous chefs ($75 per ticket).
Parking is limited onsite and costs $20 per car; check the website for information on free offsite parking and shuttles.
In addition to the main site at Mādahòkì Farm, the festival is also holding a free, two-day Summer Solstice Block Party at 55 ByWard Market Square to celebrate the opening of a new First Nations, Inuit and Métis-owned shop in the ByWard Market. It started on Sunday, June 19 and continues on Tuesday, June 21 (10am to 6pm). Festivities include pow wow dancing, games, workshops, food and artisan vendors, and live performances by Joel Wood, Sunsdrum, hoop dancer Dallas Arcand, and Leela and Jay Gilday. (Many of these artists are also performing at Mādahòkì Farm; see the link above for times and dates.)
Beyond Ottawa, related events this week include a National Indigenous Peoples Day event at Riverside Park in Carleton Place (175 John Street), starting at 6pm on Tuesday, June 21. You can learn about the new Mississippi River Gathering Place/Misi Zibi Mamidosewin that is going to be established in Riverside Park.
In Montreal, admission to the Canadian Centre for Architecture is free on June 21, making it easier for everyone to see the centre’s new exhibition, Towards Home. The Indigenous-led exhibition explores how Inuit, Sámi and other communities are designing and building spaces across the Arctic.
Take a self-driving garden tour in Carleton Place
Buy a $25 ticket to the Sunflower Garden Tour on Saturday, June 25, and you’ll get a map pointing you to 10 noteworthy gardens in and around Carleton Place. The fundraiser for Zion-Memorial United Church features a public garden, a bog garden and two gardens with pools, among others. There’s also at least one Irish pub along the way.
Watch stone carvers at work on the Sparks Street Mall
There’s a rare chance this weekend to watch stone artists at work, when the Canadian Stone Carving Festival comes to downtown Ottawa’s Sparks Street Mall. For 18 hours over three days (June 24 to 26), carvers will create their works outdoors on the mall, using only hand tools. You can see them in action between noon and 5:30pm on Friday, from 8am to 5:30pm on Saturday (except for a lunch break at 12:30pm), and from 8am to 1pm on Sunday. The event isn’t a contest; it’s open to carvers at all levels of experience. Starting at 2pm on Sunday, the finished pieces will be auctioned off to the public, with the proceeds going to Ottawa Innercity Ministries.
See tall ships in Brockville
Grand sailing ships of all sorts will be lined up along the Brockville waterfront during this week’s Brockville Tall Ships Festival (June 24 to 26). As well as tours of the ships, you can enjoy live music and storytelling, check out vendors’ booths, see a draft horse display, take the little ones to the Kids’ Zone, and visit some of the festival’s partner attractions, such as the Brockville Railway Tunnel and the Aquatarium.
Note that if you want to buy tickets online, you must do so by Tuesday, June 21. After that, you can buy them in person at the Brockville Arts Centre on June 22 and 23, and at the festival gate on Blockhouse Island from June 24 to 26. Cashless payment preferred. General admission tickets to the festival grounds are $10, both in advance and at the gate. Boarding passports, which allow you to come aboard the tall ships, are $15 in advance and $20 at the gate.
Celebrate Quebec’s long weekend in Gatineau
It’s Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day on June 24, meaning Quebeckers have a long weekend. You can celebrate it at Parc des Cèdres in the Aylmer sector of Gatineau (15, rue Raoul-Roy) at the four-day L’Outaouais en fête festival (June 23 to 26). The packed slate of activities includes inflatable slides for the kids, live music, a parade from Galeries d’Aylmer to the park on June 24 (starting at the mall at 12:30pm), fireworks at the park on Friday night, buskers, beach volleyball and more. Admission to the site is free until 4pm daily, and it’s always free for kids 12 and under. After 4pm for adults, you’ll need a ticket ($15 to $20, plus taxes and fees).
Enjoy the TD Ottawa Jazz Festival
It’s the first weekend of one of Ottawa’s biggest music festivals! The TD Ottawa Jazz Festival (June 24 to July 3) will be lighting up all sorts of downtown venues, such as Confederation Park (Elgin Street at Laurier Avenue West), Marion Dewar Plaza (across Laurier from Confederation Park, in front of Ottawa City Hall and the National Arts Centre (1 Elgin Street).
Crowd favourites on stage this year include Blue Rodeo (Sunday, June 26), Emmylou Harris and the Red Dirt Boys (Tuesday, June 28) and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis (Wednesday, June 29).
Some shows require tickets or passes, available at a wide range of prices, but there will also be two days of free shows on Marion Dewar Plaza from noon to 6pm on June 25 and 26.
Catch even more concerts
Live music fans, you have lots of choices this week and early next, including the following.
- A big series of free live music events starts this week in downtown Kingston, including Music in the Park (Tuesday, June 21), Downtown Country (Thursday, June 23), Big Band Friday (Friday, June 24) and Silly Sounds on Sydenham (for kids; Saturday, June 25). All of these series will continue throughout the summer; see the Downtown Kingston website for the full schedule and locations.
- The British Legends, a tribute to the music of David Bowie, Elton John and Queen, is on stage on June 22 and 23 at the Brockville Arts Centre (235 King Street West). As well as evening shows both nights at 8pm, there will be a matinée at 2pm on Thursday. Tickets are $35.50 plus tax.
- Folk/roots singer-songwriter Lynne Hanson is holding a release party for her new album, Ice Cream in November, at First Unitarian Church Ottawa (30 Cleary Avenue) on Friday, June 24, starting at 7:30pm. Tickets are $25 to $30.
- Feast of the Fields is a dinner and concert at Furnace Falls Farm (504 Old Briar Hill Road, Lyndhurst) on Saturday, June 25. (You might remember that I mentioned it in my newsletter a few weeks ago.) Dinner tickets are sold out, but you can still get a concert-only ticket to see “philoso-folk” duo Kris & Dee for $30.51 plus taxes.
- Award-winning country star Dallas Smith is at TD Place (1015 Bank Street, Ottawa) on Monday, June 27. The show starts at 7pm. Tickets are $45 to $90, plus taxes and fees.
See dragon boats in Ottawa
The Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival is back at Mooneys Bay Beach (2960 Riverside Drive) from June 24 to 26. The free, all-ages event includes an all-Canadian music lineup, topped by The Strumbellas (Friday at 9:30pm) and Serena Ryder (Saturday at 9:30pm). Along with lots of exciting dragon boat racing, there will be food trucks, lion dancers, a children’s choir, a pipe-and-drum band, a Lego display and more. You can park for free at the Canada Post headquarters, just up the road, during festival hours. Bike parking is free at the park.
Dance the night away in Perth
Lanark County Wide Pride is holding an all-ages Come Out and Dance DJ party for the 2SLGBTQ+ community and allies at the Perth Civitan Hall (6787 County Road 43, Perth) on Saturday, June 25. Tickets are $15 in advance or $20 at the door. Put on your dancing shoes!
Enjoy festivals, music and an exhibition at Fairbairn House in Wakefield
The Fairbairn House Heritage Centre (45, chemin de Wakefield Heights, Wakefield) is going to be an especially busy place over the next week or so.
Montreal-based Suoni per il Populo is holding its first experimental-music event outside Montreal at Fairbairn House on Saturday, June 25, from 3pm to 9pm. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door.
The next day, the property is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a free party from 1pm to 4pm. As well as live music, cake and kids’ activities, you can check out the new exhibition, Hippie Music History in West Quebec.
And on Monday, June 27, it kicks off its Musical Mondays series with a concert by Godknowswhat at 6:30pm. The series continues every Monday night until August 29, and tickets are $20 per show.
Get your motor runnin’ in Alexandria Bay
Now that the Canada–U.S. border has reopened, I suspect the Thousand Islands River Run Bike Rally (June 24 to 26) will draw some motorcycle-loving Canucks to Alexandria Bay, New York. You can check out bike vendors, live music, tattoo and loud pipes contests, a custom bike show, a poker run, and more.
Plan ahead
Looking ahead, here are some hot tickets you might want to buy now, before they’re gone.
- Giant topiary installation Mosaiculture, Parc Bois-de-Coulonge, Quebec City, June 24 to October 10
- Curds and Cooks Festival, Back Forty Artisan Cheese, Mississippi Station, July 2 (no tickets needed, but since it’s a bit of a drive from Ottawa, I thought you might want to plan ahead a bit)
- Renfrew Bluegrass Festival, Ma-te-way Park, Renfrew, July 7 to 10
- St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival, Prescott, July 9 to August 20
- Broadway smash Hamilton, National Arts Centre, Ottawa, July 13 to 31 (limited tickets available)
- Late-night host Trevor Noah, TD Place, Ottawa, September 23
- Crooner Michael Bublé, Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa, October 14
- Comedian John Mulvaney, TD Place, Ottawa, November 3
- Canadian rockers Arkells, TD Place, Ottawa, November 24
- Author Elizabeth Gilbert, Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre, Ottawa, April 18, 2023
Looking for more big events coming up this summer? Check out this list.
I write a “road trip roundup” post like this every week. Are you promoting an upcoming event you’d like to see in a future weekly road trip roundup? Please email me the details at least two weeks in advance of the event, and I’ll add them to my files. If you have a horizontal photo or two I could use, even better. Thanks!
Looking for more tips on things to see and do in Eastern Ontario, the Outaouais, northern New York state and beyond? Subscribe to my free weekly newsletter or order a copy of my book, Ottawa Road Trips: Your Weekend Getaway Guide.
As the owner of Ottawa Road Trips, I acknowledge that I live on, work in and travel through the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Nation. I am grateful to have the opportunity to be present on this land. Ottawa Road Trips supports Water First, a non-profit organization that helps address water challenges in Indigenous communities in Canada through education, training and meaningful collaboration.