If you want to enjoy the sights and sounds of Edmonton without spending a lot of cash,
you will be happy to know that it's not difficult to have a great time while being easy
on the wallet.
Edmonton's many Festivals have free admission or very low gate prices. However,
you still have to have some cash on hand. For instance,
Klondike Days will cause you five bucks worth of damage at the gate,
but once you enter you can end up spending a fortune on ride tickets and overpriced food.
The Fringe will set you back
about seven dollars per play that you see. However, to simply walk around the
area in Old Strathcona is free. The Heritage Festival
which celebrates the foods and cultures of the world has free admission but encourages a donation to the Food Bank.
For cheap movies, Metro Cinema which operates out of the
Zeidler Hall in the Citadel, has a low seven dollar annual membership,
which includes you first movie for free. The movies include classics, low budgets, and
World film.
With the one stipulation of controlling yourself from buying anything in the trendy shops and cafés,
a walk down Whyte Avenue is a
fun and relaxing thing to do especially on a spring or summer evening.
Ditto for Candy Cane Lane
in the winter -- all those lights and decorations are spectacular.
If you enjoy music and movies but finding the cost of buying CDs and renting movies to be mounting up on you,
consider joining the Edmonton Public Library, which
has an extensive audio-visual section including music from a variety of genres and movies
that include both recent releases and classics. A library card is only
twelve dollars a year to own, which breaks down to one dollar a month for unlimited
listening and viewing pleasure.
For inexpensive Internet access, Edmonton FreeNet
offers reasonably-priced accounts which include unlimited graphical access. As Edmonton's Community Network,
FreeNet also offers free and low-cost training classes.
You can meet other Edmontonians live, 24 hours a day in chat.
