Town of Banff

Banff Summer Arts Festival

Alberta Ballet Company's The Fiddle and the Drum, with music and visual design by Joni Mitchell, a highlight of the 2008 Banff Summer Arts Festival Photo: Charles Hope, courtesy of The Banff Centre

May through August at The Banff Centre

The Banff Summer Arts Festival runs May through August each year. Experience events of every sort, both intimate and spectacular - concerts, performances, art walks, exhibitions, readings, lectures, and new media events.

The Banff Summer Arts Festival includes close to 200 events featuring over 1,000 international artists participating in Banff Centre programs.

Highlights of the 2009 Festival will include performances by the Banff Festival Strings with renowned soloists Angela Cheng and Desmond Hoebig; La Tragédie de Carmen, the celebrated adaptation by Peter Brook of Bizet's opera Carmen; Janacek's opera The Cunning Little Vixen, in a new English translation by John Murrell; and Festival Dance, featuring North America's finest young dancers in a stunning new work by the 2009 Lee Award winner Heather Myers.

The Banff Summer Arts Festival also includes dozens of free or donation-at-the-door events throughout the summer months, as well as events staged in downtown Banff.

For 75 years, the impact of the inspiring mountain location, the creative atmosphere, and the diverse group of artists from many backgrounds and disciplines, has made being in the audience at the Banff Summer Arts Festival a special treat for local Bow Valley residents, as well as Calgarians, and many of the 4 million tourists who visit Banff National Park every summer.

• For more information: Banff Summer Arts Festival

Or contact The Banff Centre Box Office:
T: 1.800.884.7574, or
T: 403.762.6308
E-mail: box_office@banffcentre.ca