Heart of the City Festival
Celebrate Edmonton’s vibrant artistic community
Heart of the City Festival is ushering in its 20th anniversary! And this year will feature two days of live performances and artist showcases to celebrate. Giovanni Caboto Park will not only have live music, but there will also be a stage welcoming poetry slams, stand-up comedy, and storytelling, as well as art installations throughout the park.
After deferring the 2023 event to better prepare for this milestone anniversary, the festival will have more activities and workshops than previous years. Celebrating the community and emerging art from the city of Edmonton for the past 20 years, Heart of the City offers a free and inclusive weekend.
The festival will have live talent like Chubby Cree and Billie Zizi. Chubby Cree is an Indigenous hand drum group who have been playing around Edmonton for the past several years. National Music Centre’s Alberta spotlight calls Billie Zizi an “avant-jazz [and] soul experimenter” artist. She has recently dropped a new single called “A Picture of a Picture.” Both artists will be playing on June 8.
This year, we will also have a catwalk! For the first time, the Indigenous Fashion show will be integrated into the festival. This will be Heart of the City’s third Indigenous Fashion show, but the last show was hosted in November of 2022. There were designers representing Canada’s Indigenous cultures, along with modern fashion made in Edmonton.
There will be three stages: one for live musicians; a “youth stage” for musicians under the age of 25; and a Beat Spoken Word stage for poetry, stand-up comedy, and storytelling.
Heart of the City Festival will also feature an additional event on June 9. On the Beat Stage, there will be a Story Slam at 4:30 pm to honor James Jarvis, who passed away in October of 2023. Storytellers will have an allotted 5 minutes to tell a clean story — the festival will remain family-friendly — to impress judges and have a chance to win $300.
Bring your family. Bring your friends. Bring anyone and everyone to an unforgettable weekend of music and art. It’s free!
To see the most recent updates on the Heart of the City Festival, check out their Facebook, Instagram, and X (Twitter) social media pages. The official schedule for the live performances will be posted on heartcityfest.com.
HEART OF THE CITY FESTIVAL
June 8 & 9
Giovanni Caboto Park
heartcityfest.com