Summer just keeps rolling along with a packed schedule of events. This week, you can choose from immersive art installations in Ottawa focusing on Banksy and Monet, Russell Peters shows in Ottawa and Kingston, music festivals in Carleton Place and Montreal, and plays in Perth, Kanata and beyond. You can watch ballerinas in the Laurentians, cheer for inner-tube racers in Morrisburg, catch a country fair in Lombardy, thrill to buskers on Sparks Street or channel your inner Scot at the Glengarry Highland Games in Maxville. Wherever your road trips take you, enjoy!
Groove to the blues in Morrisburg
The Legendary Downchild Blues Band is playing at StoneCrop Acres Winery and Vineyard (5242 Smiths Road, Morrisburg) at 8pm on Sunday, July 31. Tickets are $64 and the show starts at 7pm.
Get cultured in Saint-Sauveur
The Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur (July 28 to August 7) is a multidisciplinary arts festival in the Laurentians featuring a diverse selection of dance and musical performances. One highlight will probably be A Night With the Stars (July 28 and 29), featuring dancers from ballet companies around the world performing pas de deux both classic (Swan Lake, Giselle) and new. Prices vary; some events are free.
Learn about herbs in White Lake
The Ottawa Valley Midsummer Herbfest comes to the Waba Cottage Museum and Gardens (24 Museum Road, White Lake) on Sunday, July 31, from 9am to 4pm. Billing itself as “a celebration of healthy living,” it offers everything from live music and pontoon boat rides to henna tattoos and food samples. Lots of local vendors will be on site selling meat, produce, jewellery, clothing, soap and more. There will be a beer tent, too. Free admission.
See turtle art in Portage-du-Fort
Attention, art and turtle lovers: Call of the Turtle is a new show of turtle-themed art opening at the Stone School Gallery (28 Mill, Portage-du-Fort, Quebec) with a vernissage on Friday, July 29. The exhibition features works by 28 local artists. Come at 5:30pm for a short talk about turtles of the Pontiac region, then stay for the opening from 6pm to 8pm. The gallery is normally open 11am to 4pm, Thursday to Sunday, and the exhibition runs until August 21. (P.S.: There’s a family-oriented turtle event happening at the gallery next Saturday, August 6, from 9am to noon.)
Hie to the Glengarry Highland Games in Maxville
Pipe bands! Caber tossing! A whisky tasting! Fiddlers, dancers and hammer throwers! And men in kilts! What else could it be but the Glengarry Highland Games? This festival of all things Scottish pretty much takes over tiny Maxville, north of Cornwall, this weekend (July 29 and 30). There’s also a kids’ fun area, a kilt run, a harp workshop, a rugby tournament and more.
Catch a country music festival in Beckwith Park
Grab your tent and your cowboy boots—the three-day Goodwood Music Festival is coming to Beckwith Park this weekend (July 29 to 31). Over a dozen acts from across the Ottawa Valley will be taking to the stage, including Doubleback and Unwound. Tickets for individual days range from $20 to $30, or you can buy an all-festival pass for $60. Camping passes cost an extra $40. Beckwith Park is on the southeastern edge of Carleton Place (1319 9th Line).
Take the kids to a Morrisburg festival
Morrisburg will be a magnet for families this weekend during the Tubie Festival (July 29 to 31). Highlights include a parade (starting from Waterfront Park at 1pm on Saturday), a dance (Saturday, 8pm to 12:30am), bouncy castles (12pm to 5pm on Saturday and Sunday, Waterfront Park) and—the highlight of the weekend—exciting tube races on the St. Lawrence River! The main race starts at noon Sunday and goes from Arlor Haven to Morrisburg Beach; the secondary race starts at 1pm and goes from the Morrisburg Dock to Morrisburg Beach.
Put yourself into an artist’s world
If you enjoyed last summer’s immersive Van Gogh show, you may well be interested in two similar shows in Ottawa now.
Taking place at the Aberdeen Pavilion at Lansdowne Park (1000 Exhibition Way), Banksy 360o: The World’s Most Elusive Street Artist is an unauthorized show featuring projections of more than 50 of the famed graffiti artists’ eye-catching works. The show runs on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, from 10am to 8pm each day. Timed tickets start at $23 for children and $36 for adults; they’re cheapest on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The show runs until October 7.
Imagine Monet, meanwhile, lets you walk through larger-than-life projections of some of the Impressionist artist’s most treasured paintings. It’s on at the EY Centre (4899 Uplands Drive, Ottawa) until August 14. Tickets are timed and start at $25.50 for children, $31 for adults and $107 for families. The show runs every day but Mondays; times vary. Tickets are cheapest on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings between 10am and 11:30am.
Celebrate Caribbean cultures in Montreal
This weekend in Montreal, Festival International Cubaneando celebrates all things Cuban—and, more widely, Latin American—on July 30 and 31. The fun unrolls at Maison Roumaine (8070 av. Christophe-Colomb, at Jarry) and includes dance classes and workshops, art exhibitions, and lots of live music. It runs from noon until 11pm on Saturday, and noon until 9pm on Sunday. There’s also an online/virtual component, which includes a percussion workshop, a cocktail workshop and more. Free admission.
Also this week in Montreal, you can delve into Haitian culture at Haiti en folie (July 25 to 31). Events take place at venues around the city and online, at various prices (some are free). One of the main venues is Parc Lafontaine (3819, av. Calixa-Lavallée), where you can enjoy a food fair (11am to 11pm on Saturday and Sunday) and lots of live music.
See a play in Perth, Kanata, downtown Ottawa and beyond
Among the theatre productions opening this week are shows in Perth, Kanata, the National Arts Centre and a variety of local parks.
In Perth, you can see The Lone Rider: A Large Number of Ways to Die in the West, at Studio Theatre Perth (63 Gore Street East). Billed as a “whodunnit western comedy,” Mat Kelly’s play promises lots of family fun. The show runs at 7:30pm from July 28 to 30, and again from August 4 to 6; there are also Sunday matinées at 2pm on July 31 and August 7. Regular tickets are $24 for adults and $10 for children under 14. Students with ID can get rush tickets for $10, and adult tickets are $5 off on opening night (July 28).
Also starting this week, Kanata Little Theatre is presenting multiple performances of a set of 10-Minute Plays, from July 29 to 31. Each performance includes multiple mini-plays—all written, directed and performed by the troupe’s members—and the show runs a little over an hour in total. The shows on July 29 at 7:30pm and July 30 at 2pm feature six mini-plays, and the shows on July 30 at 7:30pm and July 31 at 2pm include five other plays. So, theoretically, you could see 11 different plays this weekend—even all of them on the same day! Tickets are pay-what-you-can.
At the National Arts Centre, Assassinating Thomson (July 26 to 31) is a one-man show created and performed by Bruce Horak. In it, Horak—who is legally blind—weaves together his personal story and the unsolved murder of artist Tom Thomson while also painting a portrait of the audience. Tickets are $8 per person.
And finally, A Company of Fools continues to bring its production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest to parks across Ottawa and beyond. This week (July 25 to 31), the troupe is at Strathcona Park (Monday), the St. Lawrence Theatre Festival in Prescott (Tuesday), Owl Park in Hunt Club (Wednesday), Centennial Park in Manotick (Thursday), Alexander Grove in Stittsville (Friday) and Fairmont Park in the Civic Hospital neighbourhood (Saturday).
Have some laughs with Russell Peters in Ottawa or Kingston
There are still tickets left to catch top Canadian comic Russell Peters at the Canadian Tire Centre (1000 Palladium Drive, Ottawa) on Tuesday, July 26. He’s there as part of his Act Your Age World Tour. If you miss him in Ottawa, you can see him down the road in Kingston at the Leon’s Centre (1 The Tragically Hip Way) on Wednesday, July 27. The video above gives you a sense of his style, but be forewarned—there’s some stuff near the end that’s not suitable for all ages/sensibilities!
Rock on in Montreal
Dua Lipa, Arcade Fire (see video above of their new song Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)), Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Machine Gun Kelly and Arkells are just a few of the many, many acts on stage at the Osheaga Music and Arts Festival in Montreal’s Parc Jean-Drapeau (July 29 to 31). In a city of festivals, this is one of the biggest. Ticket prices vary.
Cheer for triathletes in Kingston
Feeling fit? I mean, really fit? Then you might want to try the K-Town Triathlon on Sunday, July 31. The Kingston race event includes a swim in Lake Ontario, a bike ride along Highway 2 and a run along Kingston’s waterfront. Wow, I got tired just typing that. You can choose from various combinations of routes at different prices. If you haven’t been training for months, well, it’s too late to start now—but you could always cheer on the competitors at the finish line! This year, the home base (no pun intended) for all events will be CFB Kingston.
Take in a country fair in Arnprior or Lombardy
The Valley Agricultural Festival (July 29 to 31) is happening in at 74 Van Dusen Street in Arnprior this weekend, with the fun ranging from dog and miniature horse shows to magicians, bouncy castles, a petting zoo and live entertainment. The gates are open to the general public from 4pm to 10pm on Friday, 10am to 10pm on Saturday, and from 10am to 4pm on Sunday. Tickets at the gate start at $15 for children 12 and under, and $20 for adults. (Note that pre-sale online ticket sales have ended.)
The Lombardy Fair (July 29 to 31) is a year older than Canada—the event goes back to 1866. Raffles, an axe-throwing cage, monster truck rides, performances by the Woofjocks Canine All-Stars, a demolition derby, lawn mower races and live music are among the many attractions. The gates open at noon on Friday, and at 9am on Saturday and Sunday, and close at 9pm each evening. Admission is $15 for the day or $40 for an all-weekend pass; kids five and under get in for free.
Delight in buskers’ antics on the Sparks Street Mall
The Ottawa International Busker Fest will light up Sparks Street throughout the long weekend (July 29 to August 1). More than 20 performers—escape artists, fire dancers, jugglers, acrobats, unicyclists and more—will amuse the crowds. The entertainment starts at 10:30am every day but Sunday, when it starts at 11am. Most nights it goes until 11pm, except Monday, when things wrap up around 5pm. Admission is free BUT buskers, by definition, make their income by passing a hat around after their show. So bring some money to compensate your favourite performers! (Two shows at the Ottawa Marriott Hotel, on Saturday and Sunday nights at 9pm, are for adults only and do require tickets, which are $25 plus tax online and $30 plus tax at the door.).
Hit the street in Kingston
The Princess Street Promenade returns to Kingston on Saturday, July 30. Princess Street, one of the city’s main commercial roads, will host this free pedestrian street festival from 10am to 5pm. Merchants will hold special sales, street entertainers will roam, community groups will offer fun activities and Princess will be closed to vehicles from Division Street to Ontario Street from 7am to 7pm (longer than the festival itself, to allow for setup and takedown of booths).
Admire vintage boats near Syracuse
If you’re heading stateside this weekend, you can swing by the postcard-pretty village of Skaneateles, New York—west of Syracuse—for the Skanteateles Antique and Classic Boat Show (July 29 to 31). As well as checking out the display of lovingly preserved vintage watercraft, you can see a boat parade, learn to tie knots and bring the kids to a paint-a-toy-boat workshop. The show runs from 3pm to dusk on Friday, from 9am to dusk Saturday and from 8am to 2pm on Sunday. Free admission.
See art in Haliburton
Art lovers are in luck this weekend, if you don’t mind a bit of drive. The Tour de Forest (July 30 and 31) showcases 22 artists and 12 studios in and around Haliburton, Ontario. It runs from 10am to 5pm on both Saturday and Sunday.
Cheer on rugby players in Saranac Lake
More than 100 rugby teams will be descending on the Adirondacks village of Saranac Lake this weekend for the huge annual Can-Am Rugby Tournament (July 29 to 31). You can watch games all weekend long!
And in case you missed my earlier mentions…
Lots of events I’ve mentioned in previous posts are still in progress! Here are a few to check out, if you’ve missed them until now:
- Festibière de Gatineau, beer festival at Place des Festivals Zibi (until July 30)
- Hamilton, musical at the National Arts Centre (until July 31)
- Ottawa Chamberfest, classical music festival (until August 4)
- St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival, Prescott (until August 20)
- Concerts in the Park, Sundays starting at 2pm, Robert Simpson Park, Arnprior (until August 21)
- Shenkman Summer Series, free half-hour performances outside the Shenkman Arts Centre in Orleans at 12:30pm each Thursday (until August 25)
- Rekindled: Tradition, Modernity and Transformation in Indigenous Cultures, exhibition at the Canadian Museum of History (until August 28)
- Lansdowne Park Summer Arts Showcase, free 90-minute performances outdoors at the Aberdeen Plaza at 6:30pm each Sunday (until August 28)
- Parkdale Night Market, Wednesdays, 5pm to 9pm (until August 31)
- ByWard Night Market, Thursdays, 5pm to 9pm (until September 1)
- Northern Lights, free sound-and-light show on Parliament Hill (nightly, from Thursday through Monday, until September 5)
- Planet Ice: Mysteries of the Ice Ages (glaciers and much more) and Shadowland (art made from shadows of animal skeletons), exhibitions at the Canadian Museum of Nature (both until September 5)
- Lost Liberties: The War Measures Act, exhibition at the Canadian Museum of History (until September 5)
- Forever Changed: Stories from the Second World War, exhibition at the Canadian War Museum (until September 5)
- General Idea, show at the National Gallery of Canada (until November 20)
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.
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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.