- Throughout Ottawa in 2022, you will see a focus on cultural attractions, festivals, and the performing arts! We are Here to Inspire!
- A new Indigenous attraction in Ottawa opened in October 2021. Mādahòkì Farm (meaning “share the land” in Algonquin Anishinaabe) is a new agritourism venture by Indigenous Experiences, which operates at the Canadian Museum of History. This new endeavour is a safe space where Indigenous communities can reconnect with the land through both healing and wellness programs and social enterprise opportunities, including a year-round Indigenous Marketplace, and the permanent home for endangered Ojibwe spirit horses (pictured above).
- The location also hosts special events, including a FREE! festival to celebrate each season: the Summer Solstice Indigenous Festival June 21-26, 2022; Tagwàgi (autumn) Festival in October; Pibòn (winter) Festival in December; and Sìgwan (spring) Festival in March.
- The restoration of Centre Block on Parliament Hill, which started in 2019, continues. A trompe l’oeil will be installed on Centre Block as masonry work continues through 2022 and beyond, allowing visitors to get a sense of what the building looks like behind the tarps.
- In the meantime, a “temporary” House of Commons has been constructed in West Block and a “temporary” Senate chamber is in the former train station next to the Rideau Canal. FREE! guided tours of these architecturally impressive spaces resume May 20, 2022.
- The new ByWard Night Market will run on Thursdays from 5:00 to 9:00pm between June 9 and September 1, 2022! Meanwhile, the Parkdale Night Market returns on Wednesdays from 5:00 to 9:00pm between June 1 and August 31, 2022.
Updated April 2022
Scroll below for a sense of what’s new in Ottawa or download an exhaustive list.
If you have questions, please reach out to Jantine Van Kregten, Director of Communications at Ottawa Tourism, at press@ottawatourism.ca
In this issue:
General News
Festival and Events
- The 70th edition of the iconic Canadian Tulip Festival takes place May 13-23, 2022. More than 300,000 tulips bloom in Commissioners Park along the Rideau Canal. The FREE! festival grew from an annual gift of tulips from the Dutch Royal Family in thanks for the role Canada played in the Liberation of the Netherlands and the fact that Ottawa provided a safe refuge for them during World War II.
- The 8-country FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League event takes place at the Arena at TD Place June 7-12, 2022.
- Imagine Monet, an immersive experience into the art of the father of Impressionism, is offered at the EY Centre June 16-August 14, 2022.
- The Ottawa Jazz Festival celebrates its belated 40th anniversary June 24-July 3, 2022 at Confederation Park with Wynton Marsalis, Emmylou Harris, Buddy Guy, and more.
Museums – Special Exhibitions
- Visit the FREE! Ottawa Art Gallery to see Don Kwan: Landscape, Love and Legacy (until January 23, 2023). This queer third-generation Chinese-Canadian artist’s work explores place, identity, representation, and family memory across time.
- At the National Gallery of Canada, the exhibition Canada and Impressionism: New Horizons—featuring more than 100 works by 36 artists, offering new perspectives on the influence of Impressionism in Canadian art—runs until July 3, 2022. Then, between June 3 and November 20, 2022, the influential Canadian art collective known as General Idea is the focus. Finally, between August 12, 2022 and January 8, 2023, catch The Art of Dance.
- Until September 5, 2022, the Canadian Museum of History presents Lost Liberties — The War Measures Act, which probes the fears, racism and crises that drove the suspension of civil liberties in Canada during the First World War, the Second World War and the 1970 October Crisis, and features poignant first-hand accounts from the men, women, and children who lived through it.
- The FREE! Âjagemô gallery space, run by the Canada Council for the Arts at 150 Elgin Street, presents Still Tho: Aesthetic Survival in Hip-Hop’s Visual Art resents the works of visual artists from across Canada whose creativity is rooted in hip-hop culture until May 23, 2022.
Food and Drink
- A new live music venue opened in February 2022 in the Old Ottawa South neighbourhood. Red Bird also offers music lessons, coffee, craft beer, and Italian finger foods.
- The venerable Fish Market Restaurant closed in early 2020 after more than 40 years of business but its three-storey heritage building in the ByWard Market neighbourhood has been renovated to welcome Starling on the main floor and a gorgeous new rooftop patio, while Apothecary Lounge opened in the stone-walled basement level on June 30, 2021 and York on William (YOW) opened on the second floor in December 2021.
- On August 9, 2021, 1 Elgin, the restaurant at the National Arts Centre (pictured above), unveiled a new patio structure adjacent to the Rideau Canal that includes a retractable glass roof and sides, extending the patio season dramatically.
- The Momo Spot brought Nepalese dumplings to Ottawa at the Ottawa Farmers’ Market and pop-up spots. As of fall 2021, it’s got a bricks-and-mortar location in the Wellington West neighbourhood!
- A new Tavern at the Gallery outdoor restaurant debuted outside the National Gallery of Canada in fall 2021 and will return in spring 2022, joining sister restaurant Tavern on the Falls while the original Tavern on the Hill closes in 2022 because of nearby construction.
- An Austrian-style beer garden arrived in Hintonburg in early September 2021 with Braumeister Bierhalle. Originally from Carleton Place, Ontario, this is Braumeister’s second location.
- New self-guided culinary tours by C’est Bon Cooking come to Ottawa as of May 1, 2022.
Accommodations
- A new mixed-use building called reStays opened on Queen Street in downtown Ottawa in fall 2021. Studio, one-, and two-bedroom units offer kitchen and laundry facilities and the rooftop lounge (pictured above) boasts outstanding views. Guests are literally just steps from Parliament Hill.
- Three vintage Airstream trailers have been lovingly restored and offer a peaceful overnight retreat nestled among the vines of KIN Vineyards in the far west end of Ottawa. Vintage Hideaway opened in August 2021 and Instagram just won’t be the same! Closed for winter, they will reopen in spring 2022.
- The Metcalfe Hotel in downtown Ottawa plans a summer 2022 reopening, now as the first Ontario property in the Québec-based Gray Collection. Stephen LaSalle, former chef at The Albion Rooms and then feast + revel, will be the inaugural chef at The Metcalfe’s new restaurant called Cocotte Bistro.
- A 222-room Moxy Hotel is being constructed on 5 floors of a mixed-use building at 126 York Street in the ByWard Market neighbourhood, to open in 2024.
