Downtown festival looking to ‘tough it out’ after rain puts a damper on attendance

The Works Art and Design Festival on July 1, 2026. (Curtis Goodrum/CTV News Edmonton)

A long-standing festival in the downtown core that operates rain or shine is still keeping its head up despite a significant drop in attendance.

The Works Art and Design Festival, which runs for two weekends and wraps on Canada Day, typically sees around 150,000 people. This year, that number was 80,000.

“I think we’re going to tough it out, figure out how this year ends. Certainly this is going to be a bit of a financial hit, and we can use whatever support the community can give us, but there’s no reason to expect that there won’t be a Works festival in 2027,” Amber Rooke, executive artistic director of the festival, said.

The festival features more than 200 artists and offers tours of both indoor and outdoor installations around the core of the city.

Rooke welcomed a relatively dry final event day on Wednesday.

“So far through this entire time, although it’s definitely been wet, we have been going every hour of the festival’s program,” she said.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Curtis Goodrum