GlobalFest is Calgary’s international fireworks festival, held each August over several nights. Countries take turns lighting up the sky with fireworks choreographed to music, while the grounds fill with food vendors, cultural pavilions and live performances.
About
Each night of GlobalFest is themed around a different country or culture, with that country’s team setting off a fireworks display timed to music, and it closes with a finale night. Around the show there is the OneWorld Festival: cultural pavilions, ethnic food vendors, a night market and live performances. The 2026 edition added a drone show, billed as Alberta’s largest. Gates open at 5 p.m. and the fireworks and drone shows start around 9:30 p.m.
The Calgary Fireworks Festival Society has run GlobalFest every August since 2003, skipping only 2020. In 2026 it moved from its long-time home at Elliston Park to Spruce Meadows, citing space, accessibility and parking. The society’s charitable work continues under the name Global Mosaic Alberta Society.