Dragon boats, cocktails & Marda Gras: What to do in Calgary this weekend

After another short week, the weekend is upon us already and our director, Tracy Fuller, has lots of options if you want to get out of the house.

Village Opera

Calgary Opera is back with its annual Opera in the Village extravaganza opening Thursday night. There's nothing like a little Rodgers and Hammerstein musical to get your senses tingling in these dog days of summer.

The 1949 classic South Pacific is Calgary Opera's big show this summer. It's a story of racial prejudice and love during the Second World War. The lead characters are Nellie, an American nurse stationed on a South Pacific island, who falls in love with Emile, a French plantation owner and U.S. Lieutenant Joseph Cable who falls in love with a beautiful, young Tonkinese woman named Liat.

And if that weren't enough, on weekends, the opera is presenting a totally family friendly one-act opera based on the fairy tale Cinderella.

Catch South Pacific Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m., with a 3 p.m. matinee on Sundays, this weekend and next at the Calgary Opera's big tent in Enmax Park, right beside Elbow River pathway.

Cinderella runs Saturday and Sunday at noon at the same location.

Everything you need to know is right here.

When Words Collide

For those who want to geek-out about books in the summer, When Words Collide is a great little festival that's happening this weekend. It starts Friday and runs through Sunday and the guests include some big names, like Guy Gavriel Kay, author most recently of Children of Earth and Sky and Beyond This Dark House.

Kay also worked with the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien on The Silmarillion, the first and best-known of Tolkien's posthumously published works.

So he's here, along with a handful of other authors including Will Ferguson and Mark Leslie.

You can find the full schedule right here.

Foodies

This weekend marks the annual Taste of Calgary festival. This is where dozens and dozens of Calgary restaurants, food trucks and breweries set up tiny booths in Eau Claire and offer tiny tastes of their menus.

Tickets cost a loonie each and there are tonnes to try.

It starts Thursday and runs through Sunday and here are all the details.

Cocktail appreciation

If mixed drinks are more your thing then you'll definitely want to check out the Peeled Cocktail Festival.

What you do is you get your "Peeled Passport" — your ticket to an exclusive cocktail crawl where you visit 14 different Calgary bars and taste their custom-peeled cocktail offering.

In addition to the drinks, this weekend's schedule is full of interesting talks like 'The history of cocktails' and 'A world of bitters.'

There are also helpful how-to sessions like "How to setup and stock a home bar." And of course there are two evening mixer events with the grand event on Saturday featuring high-flying aerialists, burlesque performers, fire acts, and live music.

The Bank & Baron P.U.B. on Stephen Avenue is home base for the festival.

Here's what you need to know.

Festivals

The Calgary Dragon Boat Festival hits the North Glenmore Park on Saturday and Sunday. There's more than 1,800 competitors with 4,000 spectators expected.

Here's the information you need.

Next there's Omatsuri which is Calgary's Japanese Festival. This marks the seventh annual festival, and it's happening at the Max Bell Centre on Sunday. It is $5 to get in but there's lots to see and do, including presentations of traditional music, dance and song, martial arts, games and bouncy houses, galleries of local Japanese arts and crafts as well as several food kiosks featuring traditional cuisine.

More information is right here.

Last but not least, it's Marda Gras in Marda Loop. It's happening on Sunday and it's totally free.

It's everything we all love about weekend street festivals: live music, dance and cultural performances, a fun kids area, unique shopping and lots of great food.

Here's what you need to know.