BY EVERLEY REID, TOURISM MOOSE JAW
Join us for Sidewalk Days July 4 - 6, 2024
Picture it: You’re sipping an ice-cold lemonade and snacking on some fresh hot mini donuts, while you listen to live music, shop, or watch your kids play under a warm summer sun. That sounds kind of perfect, right? Welcome to the Moose Jaw Kinsmen Sidewalk Days Festival! On July 4, 5, and 6, nine city blocks of historic Downtown Moose Jaw will be shut down to traffic and filled with over 200 vendors, food trucks, two stages, a dedicated Children’s Village, buskers, and so much more! The vendors will include local businesses with amazing sales, artisans from all over Saskatchewan (and beyond) where you’ll find clothing, jewelry, decor and more! At the food vendors you’ll find nostalgic fair treats and international eats like cotton candy, snow cones, and corn dogs, along with delicious cuisine from all over Asia, Africa, and beyond!
In the Moose Jaw Ford Children’s Village, you’ll hear excited giggles and see happy faces as kids run around and play. The only hard part will be choosing what to do first, because it will be filled with bouncy castles and games, face painting and bubbles, and children’s entertainers like magicians and balloon artists that all kids can enjoy for free! Surrounding the Children’s Village will be vendors with toys, balloons, fairy wings, and pretty much anything else a kid could dream of! If you’ve got teens, don’t fret, we will have a separate area for them with an inflatable jousting ring and a double lane bungee run sponsored by Deja Vu Moose Jaw.
Two stages will have live local music of every kind, from folk to country to rock, for three days straight, with closers The Tilted Kilts and The Uncoolas! Whether you’re more interested in pulling up a chair and listening to the music, shopping until you drop, snacking on yummy food, or watching your kids have the best time ever, the Moose Jaw Kinsmen Sidewalk Days Festival is a free, can’t miss summer event!
The Festival of Words
The Saskatchewan Festival of Words is excited to be hosting its 28th annual literary festival from July 18 to 21, 2024. Over the course of the four days, the festival staff and volunteers will be taking over the Moose Jaw Public Library and other downtown locations to host over 50 events, including readings, workshops, interviews, trivia, spoken word poetry, dramatic readings, panels, and live comedy.
Among their line-up are many returning authors. The festival is happy to welcome back such names as Waubgeshig Rice, katherena vermette, Robert J. Sawyer, Kai Cheng Thom, and more. The festival is also happy to host Joan Thomas, Victoria Koops, Zalika Reid-Benta, and local Moose Jaw writer Vivian Darroch-Lozowski for the first time in person.
As always, the festival offers free programming for our younger readers and writers. This year, the Sage Hill Teen Writing Experience will be hosted by Regina author Shane Arbuthnott. The week-long workshop will take place July 15 to 19, with a special showcase event with special guest David Alexander Robertson live streamed on July 19. There will also be an interactive fiction workshop hosted by Victoria Koops in person on Thursday July 18 for youth ages 10 to 13 who are captivated by the world of collaborative storytelling and TTRPGs. Storytime for Little Ones has also been moved back to Thursday and will feature readings from Canadace Savage. All youth events are free, but the workshops require registration
One name that the festival is particularly excited for is Brent Butt. The Festival is happy to announce that not only will Butt be interviewed on his debut thriller Huge, but he will also be performing live comedy for Festival audiences on Saturday, July 20, at the Mae Wilson Theatre.
For more information about festival events, where to buy tickets, the sale date, and more, check out the Saskatchewan Festival of Words website at festivalofwords.com.