Is Ottawa the City that Fun Forgot?

[bikegypsy]

Originally Posted by EdFromOttawa

Not sure why Ottawan's cling to this thing so desperately...

People don't "cling" to it... many of us just enjoy it and it does very well. It simply exists. If you can't/won't/don't enjoy it then just ignore it.

Good for other cities which have bigger markets... I don't care what goes on in Toronto and is it really important what goes on elsewhere? Are you concerned that you need to have the biggest whatever to enjoy yourself?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by ac888yow

Member Events
3i Summit (Tucker House)
Almonte Celtfest
Arboretum Arts Festival
Asian Heritage Month
Bank Street BIA
Blackburn Hamlet Fun Fair
Byward Market BIA – Stew Cook Off
ByWard Market BIA – Oktoberfest
Canada Dance Festival
Canada Day – Canadian Heritage
Canada Day Arts Festival
Canadian Croatian Folklore Festival
Canadian Folk Music Awards
Canadian Museum of Nature – Creatures of Light Exhibition
Canadian Museum of Nature - Edible Arctic
Canadian Tulip Festival
Capital Pride Festival
Capital Vélo Fest
Capital Vélo Rally
Carnival of Cultures
Carp Fair
Christmas Lights Across Canada
Colonel By Day (Council of Heritage Organizations in Ottawa)
Community Cup
Cracking Up the Capital Comedy Festival
Downtown Rideau – Canada Day on Rideau Street
Downtown Rideau – Chill Factor
Electric Fields Festival (Artengine)
European Union Film Festival
FCA Ottawa Ferrari Festival
Festival franco-ontarien Banque Nationale
Festival de la St-Jean à Ottawa
Festival of India (FMO)
Folk Music Ontario
Free Thinking Film Festival
Game Summit
Harvest Noir Secret Picnic/ Dance
HOPE Volleyball Summerfest
House of Paint
Italian Week of Ottawa/Settimana Italiana di Ottawa
Kidsfest
Kinburn Swampfest
Kingdom of Osgoode Medieval Festival, The
Kiwanis Music Festival – National Capital Region
Latin American Festival Latino
Latin American Film Festival
Lebanorama
Magnetic North Theatre Festival
Maple SugarFest (Muséoparc Vanier Museopark)
Metcalfe Fair
Mosaika: Sound & Light Show on Parliament Hill
Music and Beyond
Muslim Summer Festival
National Capital Craft Beer Festival
Navan Fair
Nuite Blanche Ottawa-Gatineau
Oktoberfest Ottawa
One World Awesome Arts
One World Film Festival
Ontario Scene (2015) – National Arts Centre
Orléans Festival d’Orléans
Ottawa Fashion Week – Fall/Winter
Ottawa Fashion Week – Spring/Summer
Ottawa Folk Festival
Ottawa Fringe Festival
Ottawa Grassroots Festival
Ottawa Greekfest
Ottawa International Animation Festival
Ottawa International Busker Festival (Sparks Street Mall)
Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival
Ottawa International Children’s Festival
Ottawa International Film Festival, The
Ottawa International Storytelling Festival
Ottawa International Writers Festival – Spring
Ottawa International Writers Festival – Fall
Ottawa Irish Festival
Ottawa Kennel Club, The
Ottawa Lumiere Festival
Ottawa Turkish Festival
Preston Street – Grapefest
Puppets Up! International Puppet Festival
RBC Royal Bank Ottawa Bluesfest
Richmond Fair
Salamander Theatre for Young Audiences
South Asian Festival
Sparks Street BIA – International Busker Festival
Sparks Street BIA - Ottawa Ribfest
Summer Solstice Aboriginal Arts Festival
SuperEx (Central Canada Exhibition)
TD Ottawa Jazz Festival
Theatre Wakefield - The Ta Da! Festival
Theatre Wakefield - Wakefield International Film Festival
Tim Horton’s Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival
Torchlight Shakespeare Series
undercurrents: theatre below the mainstream
Unisong Choir Festival
Victoria Day Festival
Winterbrewed Festival
Winterlude - Canadian Heritage

These are just the member events listed on www.ottawafestivals.ca. There are undoubtedly many others; a big example is the Ottawa Wine and Food Festival.

Good list. This is not an ''us too!'' but to add to the offerings in the area Gatineau has about 20 odd festivals during the year as well. Some are quite large like the balloon festival which can easily draw 50,000 to 75,000 people to its evening concerts. The Grands Feux fireworks festival can draw 20,000 people or more a night to its displays as well.

[bikegypsy]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Good list. This is not an ''us too!'' but to add to the offerings in the area Gatineau has about 20 odd festivals during the year as well. Some are quite large like the balloon festival which can easily draw 50,000 to 75,000 people to its evening concerts. The Grands Feux fireworks festival can draw 20,000 people or more a night to its displays as well.

Good point; we should create an integral list of all the festivals of the region. Let's not forget the massive Amnesia rock fest in Montebello and the animation festival as well.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by bikegypsy

Good point; we should create an integral list of all the festivals of the region. Let's not forget the massive Amnesia rock fest in Montebello and the animation festival as well.

The Grand Feux is for all intents and purposes Ottawa's summer fireworks competition. Even though it is organized by Gatinois and takes place in Quebec.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by ue

That's interesting about Edmonton, I wouldn't think people would know much about our art scene or even really much about the city out East. We're kind of off-the-radar compared to Calgary, unfortunately...

Edmonton Fringe is certainly well known. Don't know much about the rest.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by EdFromOttawa

The market is completely overrated in my opinion... It's not terribly clean, doesn't offer a lot outside of a few vendors selling basically worthless tourist tack ($8 mini bottle of maple syrup WTF) and has a lot of generic restaurants (somethingsomething bar and grill anyone?). Not to mention there's a strange lack of street performers (more Ottawa regulations???!) and generally stuff to actually DO other than walk around and look (takes about an hour or two max).

Not sure why Ottawan's cling to this thing so desperately...having brought people from out of town to it, trust me it's not that impressive.

Hell a lot of cities have something similar. Just look at Toronto's St. Lawrence Market area, or Kensington Market. Even their Market Building is bigger!

It's this kind of silly negativity about Ottawa that drives people crazy. Yes Ottawa has its shortcomings, but the Market is not one of them.

The idea that a lot of cities have something similar is simply not true. I lived in the St. Lawrence Market area in Toronto, and can say without any doubt that it is not even close to the Market here, in terms of variety of offerings, in terms of patio culture, in terms of nightlife, in terms of historic character, in terms of walkablility. It's not even really a coherent area, beyond the streets immediately abutting the market building. And Kensington - please. The Market here is something that people are rightly proud of.

Where are all of these other similar areas of which you speak? Because I can tell you that I've lived in Toronto and Montreal and have spent considerable time in most major Canadian cities (Edmonton excepted), and I've never seen one.

[OTSkyline]

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/ot...809/story.html

And then we ask each other why Ottawa isn't a bit more "fun" or why we don't have more vibrancy in the market and core with Downtown patios etc... The city is too greedy, that's why. Ottawa charging fee of $1.37 per square meter for restaurants to operate a patio. The fee is $0.14 to $0.57 per square meter for restaurants in Toronto...

?

[YOWflier]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Good list. This is not an ''us too!'' but to add to the offerings in the area Gatineau has about 20 odd festivals during the year as well. Some are quite large like the balloon festival which can easily draw 50,000 to 75,000 people to its evening concerts. The Grands Feux fireworks festival can draw 20,000 people or more a night to its displays as well.

"Us too!" is a perfectly valid and appropriate contribution to make. It's one region, and to expect that these events/attractions operate in silos would be a mistake. The Grands Feux and Balloon festival are two massive ones that I certainly don't miss if at all possible. As mentioned by bikegypsy, Amnesia is another biggie. I don't doubt for a second that there are dozens of other great events in Gatineau.

You yourself seem to be very unfamiliar with Alberta's two cities.

I'm as familiar as anyone who's been to each city once can be. I never foolishly claimed otherwise, not in this forum, and certainly not in either of those forums.

Originally Posted by ue

You seem to have a problem with me, so why do you keep reading my posts? It's like the claws always come out when you read a post of mine...jeez...everyone else has remained civil in response to my posts, so what is your fucking problem?

What's with the language?

I don't have any problem with you; I don't even know you. You seem to need reminding that you engaged me at the outset by quoting me. Isn't it normal to expect the discussion to continue until some natural conclusion? That's why I keep reading your posts, and everyone else's for that matter.

So you came into "virtual Ottawa", gave a contentious opinion that you attempted to argue as fact, and expected not to be countered? What would happen to me if I did the same in the Edmonton/Calgary forum? As I mentioned in a reply to someone else earlier, a lot of Ottawans are passive, submissive, dossile, and even self-loathing. I'm not one of them, especially when I'm engaged.

No opinion is unwelcomed, but next time, don't forget your flak jacket.

[EdFromOttawa]

Originally Posted by OTSkyline

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/ot...809/story.html

And then we ask each other why Ottawa isn't a bit more "fun" or why we don't have more vibrancy in the market and core with Downtown patios etc... The city is too greedy, that's why. Ottawa charging fee of $1.37 per square meter for restaurants to operate a patio. The fee is $0.14 to $0.57 per square meter for restaurants in Toronto...

?

Exactly this. WTF is this. Horrible 'excitement' hurting policy to crap on all kinds of innovative bar/pub spaces.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by phil235

It's this kind of silly negativity about Ottawa that drives people crazy. Yes Ottawa has its shortcomings, but the Market is not one of them.

The idea that a lot of cities have something similar is simply not true. I lived in the St. Lawrence Market area in Toronto, and can say without any doubt that it is not even close to the Market here, in terms of variety of offerings, in terms of patio culture, in terms of nightlife, in terms of historic character, in terms of walkablility. It's not even really a coherent area, beyond the streets immediately abutting the market building. And Kensington - please. The Market here is something that people are rightly proud of.

Where are all of these other similar areas of which you speak? Because I can tell you that I've lived in Toronto and Montreal and have spent considerable time in most major Canadian cities (Edmonton excepted), and I've never seen one.

I don't think the market should be discounted or dismissed either. For the purposes of this discussion anyway, I'd say that the vast majority of cities in Ottawa's size-range in Canada and the U.S. don't have anything even close to the market. Even many much larger cities don't. I've said on SSP before that the market is somewhat overrated, but it's nonetheless a huge plus for Ottawa that as I said, you don't find in most places on this continent.

[S-Man]

And then we ask each other why Ottawa isn't a bit more "fun" or why we don't have more vibrancy in the market and core with Downtown patios etc... The city is too greedy, that's why. Ottawa charging fee of $1.37 per square meter for restaurants to operate a patio. The fee is $0.14 to $0.57 per square meter for restaurants in Toronto...

This is one of the things that bugs me that I alluded to. When a patio becomes controversial (and a risky financial venture for a business), you have to wonder about the intentions of the municipality.

[TOexpat]

What's with the lame list of festivals? Is that what makes a city fun? People say, hey New York is a great city because of the festivals? Or Montreal is so much FUN because of the festivals? 98% of festivals are lame, made for family entertainment or niche audiences. The Blues fest used to be good but now is just an amorphous, pretty lame collection of has-been headliners. Maybe Blue Rodeo will play this year?

What kills Ottawa is the lack of energy. Hopefully the increasing density in the downtown improves this a bit, and I think it has as there are much better restaurants now, but still hard pressed to find a decent bar.

Ottawa in a nice city, but it is definitely not a fun city.

[YOWflier]

Homesick?

[flar]

Isn't it the "town" that fun forgot?

Just joking.

What do you expect for a city of this size? It's not big enough to have big city buzz. Ottawa has lots of play it safe government workers and introverted high tech computer nerds. Ottawa doesn't have lots of rich people or lots of poor people. It's the extremes that give cities "edginess" and Ottawa is a very middling kind of place that attracts a lot of play it safe types. It doesn't have an adventurous or entrepeneurial spirit. It is what it is. Generally safe, clean and quiet, a good place for families and healthy lifestyle, lots of amenities. Plenty of tourism from the polite kinds of people who wish to tour a capital and see national museums and monuments. The Market is one of the most vibrant neighbourhoods in Canada.

My assessment has always been the same: Ottawa has a lot to offer and little to complain about. If you want excitement, you generally need to go to a bigger city.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by TOexpat

What's with the lame list of festivals? Is that what makes a city fun? People say, hey New York is a great city because of the festivals? Or Montreal is so much FUN because of the festivals? 98% of festivals are lame, made for family entertainment or niche audiences. The Blues fest used to be good but now is just an amorphous, pretty lame collection of has-been headliners. Maybe Blue Rodeo will play this year?

What kills Ottawa is the lack of energy. Hopefully the increasing density in the downtown improves this a bit, and I think it has as there are much better restaurants now, but still hard pressed to find a decent bar.

Ottawa in a nice city, but it is definitely not a fun city.

Actually, yes, people do say Montreal is fun because of the festivals.

And I would have to disagree that any of Folkfest, Hope, the Dragon Boat festival or Westfest are lame. Have a look at the music line-ups. I'm not sure what exactly is missing.

By the way, what Toronto bar are you hoping to replicate here? I've never had any trouble finding good bars, but it it's clubs you are looking for, there is no question that Montreal and Toronto have a huge edge.

[Dado]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

First time I was in Calgary, I got in to my hotel "late", say 8:30 or 9:00. Starved. Went looking for something functionally equivalent to Bank Street in Centretown where I could find a pizza or shawarma or anything. Failed. Utterly. Met a couple of ladies on one street corner. They seemed nice.

I think I met them too.

You should have asked them where to find something to eat.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by TOexpat

What's with the lame list of festivals? Is that what makes a city fun? People say, hey New York is a great city because of the festivals? Or Montreal is so much FUN because of the festivals? 98% of festivals are lame, made for family entertainment or niche audiences. The Blues fest used to be good but now is just an amorphous, pretty lame collection of has-been headliners. Maybe Blue Rodeo will play this year?

.

Some cities have beaches as part of their offerings. Some have mountains. Some have festivals. It's not a big deal.

[flar]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

First time I was in Calgary, I got in to my hotel "late", say 8:30 or 9:00. Starved. Went looking for something functionally equivalent to Bank Street in Centretown where I could find a pizza or shawarma or anything. Failed. Utterly. Met a couple of ladies on one street corner. They seemed nice.

Bank and downtown Ottawa generally are an utter fail in that regard as well.

However, Elgin is slightly better (eg: St. Louis area) and the Market is great for that type of thing.

[ue]

Originally Posted by bikegypsy

Being famous for the art scene includes festivals btw. Calgary is on the radar of arts? For what? We know it for oil businesses and the stampede. That's it... it must be an Alberta thing.

I was meaning off the radar in general. Yeah no doubt Edmonton's art scene is probably more noticeable than Calgary's, but generally speaking, it is Calgary that gets the attention on the evening news.

Originally Posted by EdFromOttawa

The market is completely overrated in my opinion... It's not terribly clean, doesn't offer a lot outside of a few vendors selling basically worthless tourist tack ($8 mini bottle of maple syrup WTF) and has a lot of generic restaurants (somethingsomething bar and grill anyone?). Not to mention there's a strange lack of street performers (more Ottawa regulations???!) and generally stuff to actually DO other than walk around and look (takes about an hour or two max).

Not sure why Ottawan's cling to this thing so desperately...having brought people from out of town to it, trust me it's not that impressive.

Hell a lot of cities have something similar. Just look at Toronto's St. Lawrence Market area, or Kensington Market. Even their Market Building is bigger!

Markets in Toronto are better and while the ByWard Market isn't perfect, I think overall it's an excellent, organic community, unlike anything else in similar sized cities in Canada or the US. People mentioned earlier that Edmonton and Calgary don't have anything like the ByWard, it's true. We have some great markets, but none of them match the ByWard for vibrancy and size and diversity.

Originally Posted by phil235

Edmonton Fringe is certainly well known. Don't know much about the rest.

That's quite interesting actually because here in Edmonton, it's our Heritage Fest that is more popular with the locals. Many people visit the Fringe or even just hang out around Whyte Ave during the Fringe, but even more visit the Heritage Fest every year at Hawrelak Park. It's probably due to Heritage being more accessible and less 'fringe' (there's a lot of avant-garde stuff at the Fringe) but I always felt the Fringe was our natural premiere summer festival. It has the clout and outsider appeal.

Originally Posted by ac888yow

What's with the language?

I don't have any problem with you; I don't even know you. You seem to need reminding that you engaged me at the outset by quoting me. Isn't it normal to expect the discussion to continue until some natural conclusion? That's why I keep reading your posts, and everyone else's for that matter.

So you came into "virtual Ottawa", gave a contentious opinion that you attempted to argue as fact, and expected not to be countered? What would happen to me if I did the same in the Edmonton/Calgary forum? As I mentioned in a reply to someone else earlier, a lot of Ottawans are passive, submissive, dossile, and even self-loathing. I'm not one of them, especially when I'm engaged.

No opinion is unwelcomed, but next time, don't forget your flak jacket.

The language is due to your snarky demeanor. What, you don't see it? You know there are other ways to not be docile...

I don't have a problem with your points, even if I may disagree with some of them, it's just the way you're presenting them makes it more likely I'll just tune it out.

I visited Ottawa recently and saw the thread pop up in the new posts and thought I'd give my two cents. Of course the most adamant boosters of Ottawa would disagree, but it seems like I'm not the only one.

If you did the same in an Edmonton or Calgary forum and presented your findings of either city with some negative elements, as long as it was realistic, I don't think anyone would be bitching back at you. Calgarians may be very booster-y in the Canada forum, but they're more critical in the local areas. Edmontonians are just critical in gneeral.

Originally Posted by Acajack

I don't think the market should be discounted or dismissed either. For the purposes of this discussion anyway, I'd say that the vast majority of cities in Ottawa's size-range in Canada and the U.S. don't have anything even close to the market. Even many much larger cities don't. I've said on SSP before that the market is somewhat overrated, but it's nonetheless a huge plus for Ottawa that as I said, you don't find in most places on this continent.

This. The only cities with better markets are much larger than Ottawa, or across oceans.

Originally Posted by flar

Bank and downtown Ottawa generally are an utter fail in that regard as well.

However, Elgin is slightly better (eg: St. Louis area) and the Market is great for that type of thing.

Yup, and in Calgary, if you would've walked a little bit further south (no different than going a bit south to Centretown) then you'd find an assortment of things in the Beltline (11th/12th Aves, Scarth St, 4th St, 10th St, and of course 17th Ave) or walked right across the river in the NW quadrant and found stuff in Kensington.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by phil235

Edmonton Fringe is certainly well known. .

I've known about this festival for quite some time. It comes to mind first when I think of Edmonton festivals.