The Culture Days Festival will be Larger This Year

The cultural events in the Fort McMurray area this year are proving to be larger this year than ever before.  Arts and culture is thriving and alive. For example, the annual Wood Buffalo Alberta Arts and Culture Days Event is going to take place for a full four days this year. Alberta hosts a Culture Days Festival for three days, but this year they’ve jam packed it with more events due to community support for the local culture days.

According to Michael Beamish, the cultural strategies coordinator, the Wood Buffalo Alberta Arts and Culture Days will now take place from September 24th to September 28th.

The regular Alberta Culture Days Festival is only from the 26th to the 28th, but Wood Buffalo has expanded since interest is so high and the demand is there from the community. There are several local artists that want to participate in the event as well.

What to Expect for Culture Days

The event starts September 24th and will start with a Boreal Artist Institute hosted Filipino culture and food celebration. It will last from 5:30- 8:00pm at take place at the Father Beauregard School.  

On September 25th, head over to the Suncor Energy Centre for the Performing Arts for the next day’s events. It will start at 3:00 and there is a Dance Till Dark event till 9:00pm, a Fire Flies fire dancing performance at 9pm, and from 7-9pm a Stars of the Oil Sands Music Festival performance.

September 26th will be moved to the Oil Sands Discovery Centre. Spend that Friday enjoying the Oil Sands Discovery Centre for free, or head over to watch the concert by Nicely Put Together at Suncor Centre for the Performing Arts. This day is so busy that there is also a public art exhibit throughout downtown called igNight, and Keyano Theatre is hosting a 2-play presentation.

On Saturday, the city will host multiple events like the art displays, the handmade market, and the dance showcase by the Multicultural Association.

Finally on Sunday, The World Meets in Wood Buffalo will perform and there will be a foreign language film showing that night.

Thanks to the support of many volunteers, the festival is massive this year. They are hoping new residents to the area will come to this event to get an idea of what life is like here, and to see what the area offers in culture and arts. Culture days are a great way to connect to the community.