Guest Writer - Ottawa - Steph

From Stephanie Beach, writer of The Great Abyss
Photos by Stephanie Beach Photography:

Ottawa Festivals

Ottawa is home to a wide range of festivals – from Winterlude in the colder months to the Tulip Festival in the spring to Bluesfest is the hot summer there seems to be something for everyone.

The larger festivals include:
-Tulip Festival, May
-Fringe Festival, June
-Jazz Festival, June/July
-Bluesfest, July
-Music and Beyond, July
-Chamber Music Festival, August
-Busker Festival, July/August
-Folk Festival, August
-Capital Pride Festival, August
-Gatineau Hot Air Balloon Festival, September
-Winterlude, FebruaryMy personal favourite are the Tulip Festival and Winterlude but I am planning on attending the Hot Air Ballon Festival in September as well.

To be honest, the music based ones aren’t of great interest to me, not because I don’t love music (because I do) but rather because I don’t like large crowds and though all the festival generate similarly sized crowds, they seem to be more dense when music is involved.

OttawaFestivals.ca is the place to go for information about ongoing and upcoming festivals in the area. June is the start of quite a few smaller festivals like the Dragon Boat Festival (18-20). If you are in the Ottawa area you should definitely see which festivals interest you. Most of them are free and the ones that aren’t are very reasonably priced.