List of festivals in Canada


Canada has a long tradition of hosting festivals and events throughout the year. The industry adds over $33 billion to the country's tourism economy and provides jobs for more than 229,000 people in areas like business events, trade fairs, festivals, and meetings. Popular festivals include the summer's Montreal Jazz Festival and Calgary Stampede, Winterlude in Ottawa-Gatineau during the winter, and nationwide celebrations for Canada Day. Other notable festivals include the Toronto International Film Festival, Vancouver Pride Parade and Just For Laughs comedy festival.
The following list includes festivals of diverse types, among them regional festivals, commerce festivals, fairs, food festivals, arts festivals, and recurring festivals on holidays.

Sublists by locale

Province or territory

Atlantic Canada

FestivalLocationProvinceNote
Animation Festival of HalifaxHalifaxNS
Atlantic Book Awards & FestivalvariesAll
Atlantic Jewish Film FestivalHalifaxNS
Atlantic Theatre FestivalWolfvilleNS
Bonavista Film FestivalBonavistaNL
Boxwood Festival & WorkshopLunenburgNS
Cape Breton International Drum FestivalCape BretonNS
Cavendish Beach Music FestivalCavendishPEI
Celtic ColoursCape Breton IslandNS
Charlottetown FestivalCharlottetownPEImusical theatre festival
Charlottetown Film FestivalCharlottetownPEI
Corner Brook Pride Film FestivalCorner BrookNLLGBT film festival
Devour! The Food Film FestWolfvilleNS
Dutch Mason Blues FestivalTruroNSin August
Emerging Lens Film FestivalHalifaxNS
Evolve FestivalJailletvilleNBoriginally taking place near Antigonish, NS
Festival Antigonish Summer TheatreAntigonishNS
FIN Atlantic Film FestivalHalifaxNS
VariesOutdoor comedy festival produced by
Halifax Black Film FestivalHalifaxNS
Halifax Busker FestivalHalifaxNS
Halifax Comedy FestivalHalifaxNS
Halifax Fringe FestivalHalifaxNS
Halifax Independent Filmmakers FestivalHalifaxNS
Halifax Jazz FestivalHalifaxNS
Halifax Pop ExplosionHalifaxNS
Halifax PrideHalifaxNS
Hangashore Folk FestivalCorner BrookNL
Hellifax Horror Film FestivalHalifaxNS
Island Fringe FestivalCharlottetownPEI
Lunenburg Doc FestLunenburgNS
Nova Scotia Gaelic ModCape Breton IslandNS
OUTeast Film FestivalHalifaxNS
Stan Rogers Folk FestivalCansoNS
Stoked for the HolidaysSydneyNS
Virgin FestivalHalifaxNS
HalifaxNS
Exploits Valley Salmon FestivalGrand Falls-WindsorNL
Festival 500St. John'sNL
March HareCorner BrookNL
MusicNLNL
Nickel Film FestivalNL
Shakespeare by the Sea, HalifaxHalifaxNS
Shakespeare by the Sea, NewfoundlandSt. John'sNL
Sheelah's DayNL
St. John's International Women's Film FestivalSt. John'sNL
Tuckamore FestivalSt. John'sNL
Wreckhouse International Jazz & Blues FestivalSt. John'sNLearly July
YC NewfoundlandNL
Acadian World Congressvaries
Blues d'la BaiePetit-RocherNB
Festival international du cinéma francophone en AcadieMonctonNB
Foire BrayonneEdmundstonNB
Frye FestivalMonctonNB
Harvest Jazz & Blues FestivalFrederictonNB
HubCap Comedy FestivalMonctonNB
Indigenous Film FestivalFrederictonNB
BouctoucheNB
New Brunswick Summer Music FestivalFrederictonNB
Miramichi Folksong FestivalMiramichiNB
Saint John Jewish Film FestivalSaint JohnNB
SappyFestSackvilleNB
Silver Wave Film FestivalFrederictonNB

Territories

FestivalLocationTerritoryNote
Dead North Film FestivalYellowknifeNT
Folk on the RocksYellowknifeNT
Great Northern Arts FestivalNT
Rockin the RocksNT
Yellowknife International Film FestivalYellowknifeNT
Nunavut International Film FestivalIqaluitNU
QuviasukvikNU
Adäka Cultural FestivalWhitehorseYT
Available Light Film FestivalWhitehorseYT
Out North Queer Film FestivalWhitehorseYT
Yukon International Storytelling FestivalYT
Yukon Sourdough RendezvousYT

City

Sublists by type

Festivals by size

Attendance

  1. L'International des Feux Loto-Québec, 3 million
  2. Montreal International Jazz Festival, 2.5 million
  3. Winterlude, 1.6 million
  4. Celebration of Light, 1.6 million
  5. Just For Laughs, 1.5 million
  6. Festival d'été de Québec, 1.5 million
  7. Ottawa Bluesfest, 1.3 million
  8. Nuit Blanche Toronto, 1.2 million
  9. Canadian National Exhibition, 1.3 million
  10. Calgary Stampede, 1.2 million
  11. Toronto Caribbean Carnival, 1.2 million
  12. Pride Toronto, 1.3 million
  13. Montréal En Lumière, 0.9 million
  14. Pacific National Exhibition, 0.9 million
  15. K-Days, 0.8 million
  16. Toronto International Film Festival, 0.5 million
  17. Quebec Winter Carnival, 0.5 million
  18. Folklorama, 0.4 million
  19. Carassauga, 0.3 million
  20. Festival du Voyageur, 0.1 million

Economic impact

  1. Toronto Caribbean Carnival, $470 million
  2. Calgary Stampede, $172.4 million
  3. Winterlude, $151 million
  4. Pacific National Exhibition, $139 million
  5. Pride Toronto, $136 million
  6. Toronto International Film Festival, $135 million
  7. Just For Laughs, $80 million
  8. Canadian National Exhibition, $58.6 million
  9. Celebration of Light, $37 million
  10. Quebec Winter Carnival, $34 million

Festivals by type

Children's festivals

Comedy festivals

Dance festivals

Food festivals

Fringe festivals

Literary festivals