Symphony Under The Sky returns to amphitheatre following Hawrelak Park renovation

The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra rehearses for the opening performance of this year's Symphony Under The Sky festival, which begins Sept. 3, 2026, and runs through Labour Day on Sept. 7, at Hawrelak Park's Heritage Amphitheatre. (Darcy Seaton/CTV News Edmonton)

Another Hawrelak Park staple returns this week.

Symphony Under the Sky is back at the central Edmonton river valley park Thursday for the first time in three years.

The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra’s annual outdoor festival moved to Snow Valley while city crews carried out extensive renovations to Hawrelak Park, which officially reopened in May and has since seen the return of events such as the August long weekend’s annual Heritage Festival.

Bob Bernhardt, who has conducted Symphony Under the Sky for the past 20 years, marvelled at the upgrades to the Heritage Amphitheatre, where the 70-piece orchestra will alternate between a pops program featuring Hollywood film favourites and vocalist Ariana Whitlow and a classical performance highlighted by Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.

“The sound array is brand new, and it’s inclusive,” Bernhardt told CTV News Edmonton during a Thursday morning rehearsal. “Everyone will feel it, even to the back of the lawn.”

Bernhardt said he’s looking forward to the informal atmosphere that comes with performing outdoors.

“I love having a relationship with the audience, but also we get geese flybys, we get squirrels on the stage,” he said. “Things happen, and that’s great. It’s human.”

Light rain or a breeze won’t stop the performances. If the weather turns severe, however, the concert will move to the ESO’s home at the Winspear Centre.

The festival runs through Labour Day, with pops performances on Thursday at 7 p.m., and Saturday and Monday at 2 p.m., and the classical presentation on Friday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Some tickets are still available.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nahreman Issa