Events for Ottawa’s 200th birthday announced

The City of Ottawa and Ottawa Tourism have unveiled a list of events to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Ottawa. CTV’s Leah Larocque reports.

The city of Ottawa turns 200 years old this year and a slate of events was unveiled Tuesday to celebrate the momentous milestone.

Known as Bytown at its founding in 1826, the town was built around the construction of the Rideau Canal, led by Colonel John By. The settlement would be incorporated as a city and renamed Ottawa, after the river, in 1855. Queen Victoria named the city as the capital of the Province of Canada in 1857, with the first session of Parliament held in 1866, one year before Confederation.

Today, Ottawa is home to more than one million people.

“Ottawa’s 200th anniversary is about telling our story, celebrating together, having some fun, and reflecting on what makes our community so special and unique. I invite everyone, all over our city, to experience all that this milestone year has to offer,” Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said Tuesday.

The City of Ottawa has launched three “Ottawa 200” grant programs to help fund events all year long, with a total of $750,000 to be distributed.

The programs include the “Ottawa 200 Artist/Creator Program,” to support artists and creators, in collaboration with the Ottawa Art Gallery and Arts Ottawa; the “Ottawa 200 Civic Events Funding Program,” to fund free cultural and community non-profit-led events; and the “Ottawa 200 BIA Activation Grant,” to give Ottawa’s 18 business improvement areas money to purchase Ottawa 200 promotional materials.

Ottawa Bluesfest also announced the lineup for a special Ottawa 200 Day on July 19 at LeBreton Flats, which will feature The Guess Who, the Sheepdogs, and Elisapie.

“The Ottawa Bluesfest team is thrilled to support the launch of Ottawa 200. This is a tremendous opportunity to celebrate the rich history of our city, and we look forward to contributing to a year of impactful commemorative events, while being a part of Ottawa’s vibrant future,” said Ottawa Bluesfest executive director Mark Monahan.

Events include a spring tulip festival at Saunders Farm, as well as a corn maze.

Mark Saunders is co-owner at Saunders Farm and says the tulip festival in the spring will be unique, calling it a “giant bouquet to the city of Ottawa.”

“We are going to have almost half a million tulips, planted. We have them planted in our field, and we’re going to do a celebration of tulips to kick off, our springtime and also happens to be our 50th year on the farm,” Saunders said.

“(The corn maze) is going to be a celebration and it’s going to a walking history through the city of Ottawa. It’s going to be bilingual. We’re going to have all kinds of fun, interactive activities inside a three-acre maze.”

The events will also showcase local artists. During this bicentennial edition of Pique, Debaser will animate the Arts Court with Indigenous-led performances and site-specific installations.

Rachel Waldon is the director of Debaser and she says, “I think that we’re in a really exciting time for the Ottawa arts scene, the Ottawa music scene in particular. There’s been, some amazing exports and some amazing local homegrown talent that have achieved things nationally and internationally. It’s an exciting time to celebrate our heritage and our present-day cultural moment alongside this citywide celebration.”

A Capital Pride drag talent showcase will feature all six Ottawa queens from Canada’s Drag Race and a birthday-themed takeover of the festival’s main stage.

“I think it’s important to show that the LGBTQ+ community is integrated into the fabric of the larger Ottawa community. And it’s important for us to celebrate that with ourselves and our allies. And it’s important to see that Ottawa is celebrating the diversity of our community by investing money back into, like, the production of arts and culture,” said Capital Pride executive director Callie Metler.

CTV News Ottawa also caught up with Mathieu Grodin, the city’s night commissioner, who says there are more announcements coming up.

“There’s a lot of nightlife activities incorporated in these that are going to be there to celebrate,” he said.

The City of Ottawa says more events are coming, including a free, outdoor, family-friendly block party at Marion Dewar Plaza on Saturday, Sept. 26.

Ottawa Tourism events

Ottawa Tourism has also announced recipients of its “200th Tourism Animation Fund,” offering grants of up to $20,000 per project, supporting up to 50 per cent of eligible expenses for selected initiatives.

“Ottawa’s 200th anniversary is a chance to showcase to people visiting Ottawa who we are as a city – this is a destination that is creative, collaborative, and welcoming,” said Ottawa Tourism president and CEO Michael Crockatt. “Working with the City, festivals, Indigenous and community partners, we’re empowering projects that showcase Ottawa’s character and hospitality across every ward, throughout all seasons, and with the diversity of voices that weave together to make the fabric of Ottawa.”

Here is what Ottawa Tourism says will animate the capital this year:

• Deux Voix, Une Capitale (March–December) – a monthly music series produced by the Bronson Music Theatre, showcasing the diversity of French music through nine performances featuring established francophone headliners and local opening acts, celebrating the cultural richness of Ottawa’s francophone heritage.
• Saunders Cider TulipFest (begins May 1) – a new three-week spring festival at Saunders Farm, featuring nearly half a million tulips, artistic photo installations, live entertainment, storytelling in English and French and culinary experiences in a six-acre circular orchard anchored by a 30-foot windmill.
• Requiems: Jim Logan (May 1–June 27) – S.A.W. Gallery will present a major retrospective of Métis artist Jim Logan, bringing together 40+ artworks from across Canada and wrapping the exterior of Arts Court with a 200-foot outdoor banner accompanied be free public programming.
• Ottawa 200+: Portraits, Places, and People (begins May 15) – an immersive outdoor gallery led by the Bytown Museum, transforming storefronts and public spaces along Rideau Street and the ByWard Market with large-scale archival images, animated projections and bilingual stories celebrating Ottawa’s communities.
• Shawarma Fest 2026; World Record Attempt (June 7) – Giza Entertainment will host a Guinness World Records™ attempt to build a 160-metre shawarma in the ByWard Market, accompanied by 60 vendors and live programming, with all portions donated afterward to local food security partners.
• The Voices of Bytown (June 11–13, 2026) – A 360‑degree immersive VR experience at the Festival Franco-Ontarien’s 51st edition in Major’s Hill Park, where four musical voices guide visitors through two centuries of local history through the voice and traditional music of an Algonquin, a French‑Canadian canal worker, an Irish immigrant and a contemporary Ottawa performer.
• Debaser – Pique (June 12–13, 2026) – During this bicentennial edition of Pique, Debaser will animate the Arts Court with Indigenous-led performances and site‑specific installations celebrating the building’s layered history, including projection mapping, and artwork specific to the 200^th.
• The Chief Speaks (June–December) – Indigenous Experiences will operate a touring Algonquin cultural installation, featuring a moveable wigwam and a hologram voiced by Elder Merv Sarazin sharing stories about Algonquin life past and present at various events across the city.
• Bytown 200 – A Musical Journey through Ottawa’s History (July 4–17) – a five-concert classical music series presented by Music and Beyond, exploring different eras of Ottawa’s history though performance, French and English narration, archival imagery and new commissions.
• A Night of Inuit Excellence (July 11 and Nov. 8) – a concert series presented by Qamaniq Records, bringing together Inuit musicians, storytellers and multidisciplinary artists from across the circumpolar Arctic to celebrate Inuit musical culture and its influence in Ottawa.
• Indigenous History in Motion (July–December) – at the Ottawa Art Gallery, Kitigan Zibi Anishinābeg illustrator and animator Jay Odjig will create two short animations projected nightly on the OAG White Cube façade and the National Arts Centre Lantern, illuminating Ottawa’s history from Indigenous perspectives.
• Ottawa 200 Corn Maze Festival (July 10–Sept. 7) – Saunders Farm will transform a three-acre cornfield into an Ottawa 200-themed maze, featuring fully bilingual interpretive installations, soundscapes, performers and family activities along the path, exploring Ottawa’s past.
• Happy 200th Birthday, Ottawa! (Aug. 29) – a Capital Pride drag talent showcase featuring all six Ottawa queens from Canada’s Drag Race and a birthday-themed takeover of the festival’s main stage to celebrate Ottawa’s history through queer and trans artistic expression in both English and French.
• O-Town Animated (Sept. 18–Dec. 31) – the Ottawa International Animation Festival will activate a Public Art Trail, featuring three original animated short films created from archival Bytown photos and displayed on Rideau FX Poles for three months. This free downtown experience will connect cultural sites through animation and digital storytelling in English and French.

By Ted Raymond and Leah Larocque, CTV News