The festivals worth planning a trip around. Dates follow their traditional pattern; confirm the exact days before booking travel.
The Calgary Stampede calls itself 'The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth': ten days of rodeo, chuckwagon races, concerts and midway each July, running since 1912. The whole city dresses western for it.
The rodeo events, the evening chuckwagon races and the Grandstand Show are the core. Book accommodation early: the city fills up.
The Montreal International Jazz Festival is the world's largest jazz festival, running since 1980. Hundreds of concerts over ten days, many of them free outdoor shows downtown.
It books jazz legends alongside pop, rock and world music. The free stages around Place des Arts are the heart of it.
TIFF is one of the world's great film festivals, running since 1976. Every September, Toronto becomes the launch pad for awards-season films, with premieres, red carpets and public screenings.
Many screenings are open to the public with tickets sold in advance. The festival district centres on King Street West.
The Quebec Winter Carnival has run since 1955 (with roots back to 1894): two-plus weeks of winter embraced rather than endured. Bonhomme, the snowman mascot in the red tuque, presides.
The ice palace, the night parades, the canoe race across the half-frozen St. Lawrence, and the toboggan slide on Terrasse Dufferin are the classics.
Just for Laughs is the world's largest comedy festival, running in Montreal since 1983. Galas, stand-up, street performers and the famous outdoor shows take over the Quartier des Spectacles.
It is bilingual by nature: English galas and French galas run side by side.
The Canadian Tulip Festival has run since 1953, born from the Dutch royal family's gift of tulips after the Second World War. A million tulips bloom across the capital each May.
Commissioners Park by Dow's Lake is the main display, with the canal and the city as the backdrop.
Winterlude is the capital's winter festival, run by Canadian Heritage since 1979: ice sculptures on Sparks Street, the Snowflake Kingdom in Gatineau's Jacques-Cartier Park, and skating on the Rideau Canal when the ice cooperates.
Most programming is free. It runs over the first three weekends of February, overlapping with the skateway season.
The Toronto Caribbean Carnival, still called Caribana by locals, is North America's largest Caribbean festival. The Grand Parade fills Lake Shore Boulevard on the first Saturday of August with masquerade bands, soca and calypso.
The King and Queen Showcase and steelpan competitions run in the days before. It has run every summer since 1967.
The Niagara Icewine Festival celebrates Ontario's 'liquid gold' over January weekends: winery tasting tours across Niagara-on-the-Lake and the Benchlands, plus the Icewine Village on Queen Street.
Ontario is one of the world's great icewine producers; the festival is the best excuse to taste it at the source, paired with local food.
The Festival d'été de Québec (FEQ) is Canada's biggest music festival by attendance: 11 days every July, with the main Bell Stage on the Plains of Abraham holding tens of thousands.
Running since 1968, it books international headliners alongside Quebec artists across rock, pop, hip-hop and francophone music. The wristband covers every show.
Osheaga is Montreal's big outdoor music festival, held every summer at Parc Jean-Drapeau on Île Sainte-Hélène since 2006. Six stages, three days, and a lineup spanning indie, hip-hop, pop and electronic.
It draws over 100,000 people a year and has become the anchor of Montreal's festival summer alongside the jazz festival and Just for Laughs.
The Edmonton Folk Music Festival has filled Gallagher Park every August since 1980: four days of folk, roots and world music in a natural amphitheatre overlooking downtown.
It is volunteer-run and famously collaborative, with daytime workshop stages mixing artists from different traditions.
Folklorama is the world's largest and longest-running multicultural festival, running two weeks every August in Winnipeg since 1970. More than 40 cultural pavilions across the city serve food, music and dance from the communities that built Winnipeg.
Half the pavilions run week one, half week two. It is the definitive expression of the city's diversity.
The Saskatchewan Jazz Festival, rebranded Sask Jazz Fest, has run in Saskatoon since 1986: ten days of jazz, blues, funk and world music on the riverbank, much of it free.
The main stages sit in Victoria Park on the South Saskatchewan River; the free program fills downtown patios and parks.
Celtic Colours has run every October since 1997: nine days of Celtic music in community halls, churches and theatres across Cape Breton Island, timed for peak autumn colour.
Musicians come from Scotland, Ireland and Brittany to play alongside Cape Breton fiddlers. The Festival Club late-night sessions are legendary.
The Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo has kicked off Halifax's summer since 1979: the world's largest annual indoor tattoo, with 2,000 military and civilian performers from around the globe.
Pipes and drums, acrobats, dancers and military displays fill the Scotiabank Centre over the first week of July.
The Festival acadien de Caraquet is the biggest Acadian celebration in the world, running since 1963. Concerts, theatre and parties fill the Acadian Peninsula for two weeks each August.
It closes with the Tintamarre on August 15, National Acadian Day: a joyous noise parade through the town.
The Royal St. John's Regatta is North America's oldest annual sporting event, with documented races back to 1816. Fixed-seat rowing shells race on Quidi Vidi Lake on the first Wednesday of August, weather permitting.
Regatta Day is a civic holiday in St. John's: the whole city decamps to the lake for races, midway games and garden-party atmosphere.
The Charlottetown Festival has run at Confederation Centre of the Arts every summer since 1965, and is Atlantic Canada's largest theatre festival.
It is home to Anne of Green Gables: The Musical, the Guinness-record longest-running annual musical, alongside new Canadian musicals each season.
VIFF is one of North America's five largest film festivals, running two weeks every fall since 1982, with films from some 70 countries across ten screens.
It is especially strong on Canadian film, East Asian cinema and documentaries, and runs year-round programming at the VIFF Centre.
The Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous has shaken Whitehorse out of its winter since 1964: two-plus weeks of February silliness including the beard contest, flour packing, chainsaw chucking, snow carving and can-can dancers.
It is the Yukon's big winter party and a genuine community tradition, not a tourist put-on.
The Snowking Winter Festival centres on a giant snow castle built on the ice of Yellowknife Bay each March, running since 1996. Inside: concerts, theatre, art shows and an ice slide.
March pairs it with peak aurora season, making it the best month for a Yellowknife trip.
Folk on the Rocks is Yellowknife's big summer music festival, held under the midnight sun on the shores of Long Lake. Six stages mix northern, Indigenous and touring artists.
It is the north's biggest party: beer garden, food fair and artisan tents, with the sun barely setting.
Alianait, the 'world's circumpolar stage', has run in Iqaluit every June since 2005: Inuit and circumpolar musicians, throat singers, storytellers, circus artists and filmmakers under 24-hour daylight.
It is the best window into contemporary Inuit culture and the Arctic arts scene.