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Visitor Facts

  • The Gateway Park Visitor Information Centre opened in 1987.  This was the 40th anniversary of the Leduc #1 Oil discovery and the original derrick is still located behind the information centre.
  • Edmontonians love a celebration! Canada’s Festival City hosts over 30 major festivals each year.
  • The Edmonton International Fringe Festival is North America's largest live theatre event. It attracts 500,000 visitors to over 1,000 live theatre experiences each year. Lean mroe about the Fringe Festival through the storeis of people who've experienced it at www.edmontonstories.ca.
  • Heritage Days is Edmonton’s vibrant, multicultural celebration. Every year, during the August long weekend, hundreds of thousands of people flock to William Hawrelak Park to take in the sights, smells, sounds and tastes of the Servus Heritage Festival. Lean more about Heritage Days through the stories of people who've experienced it at www.edmontonstories.ca
  • The Edmonton International Street Performers Festival is Canada's oldest celebration of street theatre. Learn more about the Street Performers Festival through the stories of people who've experienced it at www.edmontonstories.ca.
  • The Heritage Amphitheatre in William Hawrelak Park is Western Canada's biggest outdoor seating venue.
  • Scenes from The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford were filmed in Fort Edmonton Park, Canada's largest living history museum. Learn more about Fort Edmonton Park through the stories of people who've experienced it at www.edmontonstories.ca.
  • More than 60 galleries and public exhibits in Greater Edmonton display a great abundance of visual art. Learn more about art in Edmonton through the storeis of people who've experienced it at www.edmontonstories.ca.
  • Edmonton has professional ice hockey, football, basketball, lacrosse and baseball teams, as well as exciting amateur sports.
  • The Edmonton Oilers once won four NHL Stanley cups in five years. Just follow Wayne Gretzky Drive to find world-class sporting entertainment. Learn more about the Oilers Stanley cup win through the stories of people who've experienced it at www.edmontonstories.ca.
  • Edmonton golfers have more than 70 courses to play, with summer-time sunshine lasting up to 17 hours per day.
  • North America’s largest urban green space is Edmonton's magnificent river valley. It’s 22 times the size of New York’s Central Park. Learn more about the River Valley through the stories of people who've experienced it at www.edmontonstories.ca.
  • Edmonton is one of the best cities in the north to view the Aurora Borealis. Weather permitting, the lights can be viewed almost every second or third night during the winter months.
  • There are over 3,500 restaurants in the Edmonton region to choose from.
  • The High Level Streetcar operates spring through fall giving visitors a trip over the world's highest streetcar bridge - the High Level Bridge - built in 1912.
  • Edmonton Tourism’s Festival City initiative was nominated for the Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Marketing Campaign of the Year at the TIAC (Tourism Industry Association of Canada) National Awards for Tourism Excellence.
  • In 2007, Pollstar Magazine ranked Rexall Place as the 13th busiest concert venue in the world and the third busiest in Canada.
     
    Join more than 200,000 motorsport fans at the Rexall Edmonton Indy, July 24 to 26, 2009. Experience a 200 mph adrenaline rush on a 1.96-mile track in the heart of Edmonton.
  • Old Strathcona has been voted one of the five best shopping districts in Canada for its variety of unique shops by Pure Magazine, 2008.
  • The Gallery Walk, the first of it's kind in Canada, was formed in 1981 to promote both art and artists of merit in Edmonton. The Gallery Walk is a 12 block area, just west of the downtown core on 124 Street, with many quality restaurants, clothing boutiques, bookstores, live theatre venues and much more. 
  • Capital EX is Edmonton’s oldest festival. This summer event includes international entertainment, chuckwagon races, and a midway full of carnival fun.
  • The Edmonton Folk Music Festival is a four-day outdoor music extravaganza that attracts more than 80,000 music lovers. Situated in Gallagher Park in Edmonton's scenic river valley, the festival offers an eclectic mix of music for all tastes.
  • The first Moslem mosque in North America was the Al Rashid Mosque, now located at Fort Edmonton Park.
  • The EDDIE is Alberta's only tour bus operating during the busy summer season. The bus runs hourly on a daily service with 21 stops, including major attractions, historical areas and shopping districts.
  • Canada's largest Ecomuseum, Kalyna Country is a heritage and eco-tourism district in East Central Alberta.
  • With the exception of the Serengeti Plains of Africa, Elk Island National Park has higher densities of hoofed mammals per square km than any other wild area in the world. The park is located less than an hour east of Edmonton and is home to herds of free roaming plains bison, wood bison, moose, deer and elk. There are also over 250 species of birds, a bird watcher's paradise.






Lifestyle

" Considered the "Gateway to the Canadian Rockies’ – Edmonton actually offers a portfolio of attractions and lodging rich enough to keep vacationers busy and happy for days on end." Edmonton: A gateway, but many reasons to stay put – Joe Rosen, Travel Weekly