> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://thebanffguide.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Jasper Dark Sky Festival 2026: A Free Concert, a Drone Show and a Symphony by a Cold Lake - URL: https://thebanffguide.com/jasper-dark-sky-festival-2026-free-events/ - Published: 2026-09-27T02:54:53.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-27T02:54:53.000Z - Description: Jasper Dark Sky Festival 2026 runs from 16- 25 October with a free Bahamas concert, a drone show, a symphony on Lac Beauvert and telescope nights on Whistlers Mountain. Here is what is on and what it costs. - Author: Kev - Tags: Things to Do [Jasper Dark Sky Festival 2026](https://www.jasper.travel/blog/jasper-dark-sky-festival-2026-top-events/?ref=thebanffguide.com) runs from 16 to 25 October, which puts it a four-hour drive north of Banff and roughly one jacket colder than the Bow Valley. The premise is simple: Jasper is the world's largest accessible Dark Sky Preserve, and people will stand in a field at night if you give them enough reasons. This year the reasons include a free outdoor concert, a drone show, a symphony on a lakeshore and a telescope tour that starts at the top of a mountain. Here is what is on, when, and which bits will cost you nothing but a warm hat. ### The Free Night Is 24 October, So Plan Around It Saturday 24 October is the evening to build a trip around. Canadian songwriter Afie Jurvanen, better known as Bahamas, headlines a free outdoor concert in Commemoration Park, with doors at 5.30 pm, country and roots artist Kyle McKearney at 6 pm and Bahamas at 7.15 pm. When the last song ends, stay where you are. The festival's drone show follows, a choreographed light display telling the story of the Moon in the sky above town, and it is also free. ### A Symphony, a Blanket and a Lake That Will Not Be Warm A week earlier, on 17 October, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra Strings play Symphony Under the Stars on the shore of Lac Beauvert at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, roughly 7 to 10 pm. Tourism Jasper suggests you cosy up under a blanket, which in mid-October is less a suggestion than a survival tip. ### Jasper Dark Sky Festival 2026 for People Who Want the Science Explained The Speaker Series runs on 16, 17, 18, 23, 24 and 25 October and is where the festival earns its name. Dr Jonathan Burchill and Chris Ratzlaff share a double bill on student rocketry and STEVE, the luminous sky phenomenon with a citizen-science backstory. Science writer and broadcaster Jay Ingram reads from The Science of Pets and takes on why cats purr, a question that has stumped cat owners for centuries. After Artemis takes a musical and, by its own billing, sometimes darker look at what happens once humans are back on the Moon. ### Getting Above the Clouds, or at Least Above the Car Park Sun to Stars runs Fridays and Saturdays through 24 October at the [Jasper SkyTram](https://go.thebanffguide.com/jasper-skytram?ref=thebanffguide.com). It starts with a [Jasper Planetarium](https://www.jasperplanetarium.com/?ref=thebanffguide.com) dome show, then the tram climbs nearly a kilometre to the Upper Station on Whistlers Mountain for telescope stations and night-sky exhibits, with dinner packages on select departures. Back at the Fairmont, the Jasper Planetarium Dark Sky Package bundles a dome show, a weather-proof telescope session and a guided walk to a nearby dark-sky site with binoculars supplied. It comes with a two-year rain check for anything the clouds ruin, which is the most honest thing an astronomy tour has ever offered. For the photographers, [Jasper Photo Tours](https://www.jasperphototours.com/?ref=thebanffguide.com) runs a Night Photography Tour capped at five people, with locations picked each evening depending on the sky. If it clouds over, you learn light painting instead, which is a polite way of saying you still get your money's worth. ### Bring the Kids, a Torch and Modest Expectations of Sleep Saturday 24 October doubles as family day. From 1 to 4 pm in Commemoration Park, TELUS World of Science Edmonton runs ScienceFest and the Edmonton Rocketry Club launches things, both free, and from noon to 1 pm astronomy educator Anna Paolucci runs a hands-on observing workshop at the Slooh Airstream in the Pop-Up Village at 635 Connaught Drive. The Airstream is parked there 14 to 24 October, noon to 9 pm daily, running remote telescope demonstrations so nobody has to leave downtown. On 16 and 17 October, the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada's Edmonton Centre sets up telescopes at Lake Annette from 8 to 11 pm, free, with astrophotography displays for when the weather does what October weather does. The full schedule is on the [Tourism Jasper website](https://www.jasper.travel/blog/jasper-dark-sky-festival-2026-top-events/?ref=thebanffguide.com). Pack for a night in a field in the Rockies in late October, which is to say, pack for winter and call it autumn.