June 6, 2016
Festivals & Events: Nova Scotia
We take having fun very seriously.
Sometimes traditional. Always extraordinary.
From music, books, and art, to food, film, and quilts. We have a penchant for celebrating everything in the everyday, but especially in our festivals and events. More than 100 events big and small from one end of the province to the other, and all points in between. Often the heart of the community that embraces it, these events capture the essence of Nova Scotia. And they just might capture your heart.
Need a reason to visit? We’ve got lots of them.
Every year, more than a hundred festivals and events take place all over Nova Scotia. Here are just a few. Celtic Colours International Festival is hosted in communities all over Cape Breton Island in October, when the fall leaves are brilliant and the views are especially breathtaking. The event celebrates the area’s living Celtic culture with dozens of concerts, community cultural events, Gaelic singing, Cape Breton fiddling, local dance, and more.
Music is the heart and soul of every Nova Scotia community. But we’ve got a lot more going on than fiddles and bagpipes. Tune into live jazz, blues, roots, and world music from more than 500 international and local performers at the TD Halifax Jazz Festival, the largest summer festival in Atlantic Canada.
Each year, devoted fans flock to the beautiful seaside community of Canso for the Stan Rogers Folk Festival, a three-day musical extravaganza that pays tribute to one of Canada’s most prolific songwriters, Stan Rogers. The event’s music style is all over the map, including folk, country, jazz, aboriginal, swing, blues, gospel, pop, rock, bluegrass, and world music.
The Digby Scallop Days Festival celebrates the community’s world-famous scallops and the legendary scallop fleet that harvests them. Watch local scallop fishers and others compete in the scallop shucking and scallop net knitting competitions. Shuck your own scallop, or better yet, taste the many ways they are prepared.
In a region shaped both culturally and economically by agriculture, the Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival in Kentville celebrates the area’s agricultural heritage and all things apple.