This summer the city of London will host a number of festivals in the downtown core. You can expect music from around the world, whether you’re into jazz, rock, country or folk. There will also be food to satisfy all taste buds from awardwinning southern barbeque and ribs to the classic Canadian poutine.

Grickle Grass

The Grickle Grass festival will be held at the London Children’s Museum on May 30 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and includes programming for children and families focusing on sustainable and healthy living, music, and art. There will be a number of arts and crafts workshops, as well as a cooking demo. At 8 p.m., doors open for an eight-band concert. For more information visit gricklegrass.ca.

The Dundas Street Festival

On June 13, the Dundas Street Festival will be taking over downtown London for the sixth year in a row. It includes art, food vendors and music beginning at 12 p.m. and lasting until 11 p.m. The Nuit Blanche art show will be taking over from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. For more information visit ourstreetlondon.ca.

Sunfest

TD’s Sunfest will be going on for the 21st year in a row from July 9 to 12 in Victoria Park. More than 35 world music and jazz bands will play music from different cultures on five stages. Around 300 exhibitors also get involved to provide food from all over the world, as well as crafts and visual art. For more information visit sunfest.on.ca.

Rock the Park

Rock the Park, which takes place in Harris Park from July 14 to 18, includes a day of pop music, two days of country and a day of punk rock. The bigger acts include Keith Urban, Billy Talent and Rise Against. Rock the Park was originally created by the Jones Entertainment Group to support the Bethany’s Hope Foundation in its research into a cure for metachromatic leukodystrophy. It has been running for 13 years, and has successfully raised over $2 million for its cause. For more information visit rockthepark.ca.

Home County Music and Art Festival

The Home County Music and Art Festival has been running for 42 years, and began as the Home County Folk Festival. This festival includes performers on a main stage as well as a stage, 30 food vendors, and a juried craft show featuring pottery, glass, jewelry, fine art, textiles, metal, wood and photography by Canadian artists. It takes place from July 17 to 19 in Victoria Park. Admission price is by donation. For more information visit homecounty.ca.

Pride London

The Pride London Festival will take place from July 17 to 26 and includes a youth art exhibition, three pride comedy nights at Yuk Yuk’s London in the Western Fair District, a women’s pride hockey tournament, a number of outdoor events and wraps up with the Pride Parade, which starts in the Western Fair parking lot and will disperse at Victoria Park, and will be led by London Police Chief Brad Duncan. Duncan was the first police chief to walk in the parade back in 2011. For more information visit pridelondon.ca.

Ribfest

Ribfest London will be held in Victoria Park from July 30 to August 3, and includes 150 vendors, 75 bands, a beer garden, 100 food booths and carnival rides. The main event will be 10 world-class rib restaurants fighting for awards, including Best Ribber. London has been holding Ribfest for 27 years and was the first to be held in Canada. For more information visit facebook.com/LondonRibfest.

Mayor Matt Brown has a plan for London’s downtown core known as the flex street for Dundas, which is meant to make the street curb free with removable posts for converting from vehicle traffic to a pedestrian only space.

Director of Culture and Entertainment Tourism for Tourism London, Chris Campbell, thinks that this will mean great things for tourism.

“If you look at most major music cities they’ve got a street that they’re known for,” Campbell said. “In Texas, Austin is Sixth Street; you’ve got Bourbon Street in New Orleans; Saint Catherine’s in Montreal; in London it’s going to be Dundas.”

“It’ll be the hub for culture and music.”