Edmonton Alberta | Edmonton Festivals bring life to the streets for poetry lovers. If to you poetry means the stuff you did in high school English, think again: this is combat in the form of "blink poetry," a yell-a-thon with megaphones, a funkified jazz soundtrack, and multiple battles to the (poetic) death. It's nicknamed "The Word Party in Downtown E-Town" for good reason: it's three days of manic, comic, tragic, frivolous, fun, heavy-duty, rapid-fire word playtime in the heart of the city.

Among this year's headliners are the fast-talkin', astonishingly witty Canadian SLAM poetry champion Brendan McLeod and Christian Bök, author of Crystallography (Coach House Press, 1994), nominated for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Science fiction fans will likely know of Bök as the man who created artificial languages for Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict. It's the poetry your parents didn't want you to know about… and it's alive and living in Edmonton. The Edmonton Poetry Festival runs from September 11 - 13, 2008
For more information go to: www.edmontonpoetryfestival.com

Craving something provocative, bizarre, sexy, funny and smart? Then reel yourself into the Edmonton International Film Festival, where you'll see some of the gems from every genre in the country and the world, including 45 features and 110 short films.

There's good reason why this one-of-a-kind festival has been attended by such big names as Werner (Grizzly Man) Herzog and John (Hairspray) Waters. It's an amazing nine-day party bursting with international films and guests. This year's special guest is acclaimed Canadian filmmaker Bruce McDonald of Hard Core Logo fame. He'll be unveiling his latest, Pontypool, which promises unnerving acts of violence, zombies, and all the drama that occurs when the English language gets infected with a virus.

With the Reel Deal Pass, see as many films as you want, when you want, and waltz into all galas and special presentations. It's like being Hollywood royalty, Edmonton-style. The Edmonton International Film Festival runs from September 26 - October 4, 2008
For more information go to: www.edmontonfilmfest.com.