Stephen Avenue will be getting a few more open air concerts this September, with activations by Stagehand and the Calgary Downtown Association continuing until the end of the month.
The goal with the activations is to continue to draw visitors to Stephen Avenue, and to make up some time for the wet and cold summer that the city had earlier this year said Calgary Downtown Association Executive Director Mark Garner.
“It’s a blessing, right? Based on July being a wet, wet month, that obviously with this good weather, we’ve got to capitalize on it,” he said.
“We really need some additional activations to keep the vibrancy and get some stickiness to downtown, because we need those employees to hang around a little bit longer. But then, obviously, with all the conventions and things we have in September leading into October, it just helps showcase Stephen Ave.”
Garner said that working with Stagehand to program spaces on Stephen Ave, especially on the west end on the 300 block near The Core shopping mall, made sense given the partnership the two organizations have.
He said that the music activations also continue the efforts to make Stephen Avenue a connector across the core.
“We’re blessed with the bookends of having bricks and mortar cultural spaces, with the Werkland Centre, previously known as Arts Commons, but then with Contemporary Calgary. We’ve got those great bricks and mortar, and we see Stephen Ave is the potential link to the West End to East End down to City Hall,” said Garner.
“We tend to focus around Center Street, which we know is one of the most photographed in Calgary when tourists are here. But obviously, the West End needs that same love, right? I think with what’s happening with Eau Claire Plaza opening the River Walk, we need Steven Ave to be programmed all the way from the armoury down to City Hall.”
With projected good weather to continue into October, Garner said that the CDA had some surprises coming for visitors—and that would play into the larger move towards a fully activated 2026.
“I think we want to make Stephen Avenue bring the surprise back to downtown that when we look at activations and activation spots within Stephen Avenue that it could be music, it could be theatre in the round. It could be a whole bunch of different things,” he said.
The immediate choice of music for September was largely due to the weather.
“Because the weather’s so good, we’re supporting the music sector and everything that Music Mile and Calgary’s great music scene [are doing]. But our intent is to grow programming that is more diverse in ’26. We’ve had cello players, there’s violin players, all sorts of different things that are a little more culturally driven. It’s just one of the sectors we want to support,” he said.
