Edmonton has hit its autumn stride, and the last weekend of September is packed with a genuinely odd mix of stuff to do: scary haunted houses, a 40-year-old film festival, a free night market and a chance to climb inside vintage aircraft.
The biggest culture ticket is the Edmonton International Film Festival, now in its 40th year and running to October 3. It screens international and local films at Landmark Cinemas 9 City Centre and Metro Cinema, with gala screenings, filmmaker Q&As and spotlights on Alberta directors. Tickets start at $15.
If Halloween is more your speed, the season's spooky heavy-hitters all open this weekend. Pumpkins After Dark takes over Borden Park nightly from 6:30 p.m. with a rebuilt, more immersive carved-pumpkin walk through October 31. Across town on 47th Street, Deadmonton — the city's most notorious haunted house — opens September 25 with three brand-new haunts, running until November 7. Prices for both vary by date.
For something free, AsiaFest, Edmonton's Asian night market, returns September 25-27 at a venue double last year's size. Over 120 food and artisan vendors and more than 50 cultural performances fill the Windemere site daily from 2 to 11 p.m. The Old Strathcona Farmers Market also hosts a free harvest festival on Saturday and Sunday, complete with a petting zoo, scavenger hunt and vintage car show, while Callingwood Farmers Market — the city's largest outdoor market, with 200-plus vendors — runs its final Sundays of the season until October 11.
Families with a car should head out of the city. The Edmonton Corn Maze in Spruce Grove (open to October 25) pairs the maze with farm animals, a sunflower stroll, mini golf and a pumpkin patch. Prairie Gardens in Bon Accord launches its Fall-O-Ween weekend with mazes and train rides at a farm that's been operating since 1956.
One more for the aviation-inclined: Open Cockpit Day at the Alberta Aviation Museum on Saturday, September 27 ($25) lets visitors board more than a dozen of the museum's 20-plus historic aircraft and try the flight simulator lab.
Why it matters: late September is a sweet spot in Edmonton — fall colours, harvest events and Halloween season all overlapping before winter arrives. Most of these events are cheap or free, and several (the markets, AsiaFest, the corn maze) are things you can't do in summer or at any other time of year. If you're in Alberta this weekend, it's a rare chance to fit a night market, a haunted house and a film festival into 48 hours.
