This is my favourite time of the year for the city. People have deluded themselves into forgetting the annual eight months of winter in the bright blissful Prairie heat of July. It’s sunny and verdant and vibrant everywhere, and in the city’s core the streets fill up with tents and buskers, food carts and performances.

Downtown is at its best right now, because the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre festival is on. 180 performances in 12 days at 32 different venues… it makes for a colourful, active, and entertaining vibe all over the city, but shines brightest in the three square kilometers surrounding Portage and Main.

I’ll be spending a significant chunk of my free time taking in Fringe shows (I have 13 scheduled… the first, Burning Hearts, in less than two hours), and I think I’ve targeted a good cross-section of genres to explore this year. The one I’m most looking forward to? How to Talk to Human Beings (watch the epic and informative trailer).

I’ll be posting updates/reviews if I feel like it.

What?

I’m being honest.

 

S.E. Lund

 

P.S. If you’re curious, my second-most favourite time for the city is the second week of February.