Festival · pavilions
Kitchen, programme, decor, people. A community runs the whole thing and keeps everything its counter takes. This page is the roll of pavilions for August 2027, and each one appears on it the day its agreement is signed.
Our plan for 7–8 August 2027 at LeBreton Flats, subject to permits
This is the reason a community spends a year of volunteer work on a tent, so it goes at the top of the page instead of the bottom.
Decision of record · fixed before the first invitation goes out
to hold a community pavilion
Food, drinks, souvenirs — the whole counter belongs to the community that built the pavilion. We charge nothing for the pitch and take no percentage of your sales. Walking in is free for visitors, so there is no gate money to divide either.
Capital Cultures participation model · revenue share removed by decision of record
Six things a community brings. Everything else on this page is our side of the deal.
Planned · every line here is written into the Community Participation Agreement before the first invitation goes out
A community brings a kitchen and a programme. The field, the structure and the crowd around it are ours to deliver.
Proposed for the first edition · subject to permits and the site plan
| What we bring | What it covers |
|---|---|
| The ground | One site for both days, the permits that make it legal, and the fencing, lighting and layout around your tent. |
| The structure | Tent, tables and chairs, delivered, put up and taken down as one production package. |
| Power and water | Brought onto the site and distributed by us. How the outlets split between pavilions and the commercial vendors settles with the site plan. |
| A stage slot | A place in the two-day programme for your performers, with the performance fee carried by the festival. |
| The crowd | Marketing, press, the programme grid and the site map that send people to your door. |
| Safety | Licensed security, paramedics, the noise and by-law side, and one office answering all day. |
| The office | One coordinator on our side from the first meeting to load-out, and everything above in writing before you commit anything. |
Every line in that table is paid for by the festival. A community pavilion is invoiced for zero. The costs on your side are your ingredients, your decor and your own travel, and they stay on your side of the counter along with the takings.
Where a line is still being quoted, this page carries the honest state of it. The tent order, the power layout and the exact operating hours settle with the permit window, and they appear here as they land.
A pavilion carries a community's name in public for two days, so the door has a frame around it. An Ontario non-profit with a majority of its board in the Ottawa region operates a pavilion; diplomatic missions, state agencies and political organisations stand beside one instead.
The working budget carries 10 community pavilions, and 14 open above the funding threshold. No community is on the list today, and every pavilion appears on this page the day its agreement is signed — with its name, its kitchen and its programme.
Planned · no community confirmed · the count follows the cash gate
A community can take a season off and come back. Announcing that from the first edition means a gap reads as a pause, the way it does at every festival that has run this format for decades.
The shape of a pavilion card · published as each agreement is signed
A pavilion stands inside a programme, on a street, on a field. These are the other three, and the answers people write in for.
Festival · 02 of 07
Growing as they arrive · hello@capitalcultures.com
$0 to hold one. Your costs are the ingredients, the decor and your own travel. The ground, the tent, the permits and the crowd are carried by the festival.
The community does. Every dollar the pavilion's food, drinks and souvenirs take stays with the community that built it. The festival takes its share from the commercial vendors it invites itself, from power and water, from the raffle, from sponsors and from grants.
A pavilion is operated by a community organisation incorporated in Ontario. A mission comes in beside it with artists, instruments, exhibition material or sponsorship. The embassies page sets out both doors.
Cooking happens in an approved kitchen. On site you reheat, hold, assemble and serve, with a certified food handler on the counter every hour you are open. A restaurant partner or a rented commercial kitchen is how most communities meet that, and the participant academy walks a crew through it.
Most of the first edition will be first-timers, and the whole intake is built for that. The agreement is written before the first invitation goes out, one coordinator on our side stays with you from the first meeting to load-out, and the academy covers permits, food safety, pricing, card readers and what to do about a rainy Saturday.
The working budget carries 10. 14 open if confirmed cash clears the threshold at the cash gate on 15 February 2027, which also decides a second stage and a Friday evening.
No community is confirmed today, and none has been asked. The number on this page is always the current one.
Costume, ornament, craft, photography, the way you dress the space. State flags stay off the masts, political campaigning and petitions stay off the field, and what you sell is agreed with the festival office before opening. The same three rules apply to every pavilion on the site.
Talk to us this autumn and you have a year to build it properly — the crew, the menu, the programme, the paperwork. The first conversations start before this page is finished.