I Heart Edmonton

Commonwealth By Emil Tiedemann Imagine 60,000 rapturous men, women, and children - most at variant stages of drunkenness - pounding their soaked fists into pouring skies and chanting, “Oi! Oi! Oi!.” Picture a darkened football stadium full of adrenaline-hyped rock fanatics begging for 54-year-old Angus Young to strip off his trademark schoolboy uniform to bare his AC/DC undies!  Now try to imagine lightning bolts criss-crossing the ominous skies as Brian Johnson screams, “I’m a rolling thunder, a pouring rain...my lightning flashes across the sky”! I have no need to imagine such things, because I lived it when the band played the packed Commonwealth Stadium in the summer of 2009. That was an experience anyone there that night couldn’t possibly forget, and that was just one night!  Commonwealth has hosted many major concerts over the years, including Bob Dylan , Pink Floyd , Taylor Swift , U2 , The Police , Willie Nelson , Genesis , Tim McGraw , David Bowie , Bo...

Anyone who attends an Esks game at Commonwealth will now have access to free Wi-Fi on your smartphones & tablets by emil tiedemann S MARTPHONES have become a part of our daily lives, whether we like it or not. We use them to snap pictures of what we're about to stuff down our gullets; we use them to show our annoyed table guests YouTube clips of cats beating up dogs; we use them as flashlights to guide us through our apartments for those midnight pee sessions; sometimes we even use them to call people! Friday, August 21st is 'Social Media Night' as the Edmonton Eskimos take on the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Commonwealth Stadium! So that means that they're with us pretty much everywhere we go...and I mean every where! But what doesn't tag alongside us is that elusive complimentary Wi-Fi service, allowing us to Instagram our altered selfies or Tweet about how much we hate people who Instagram altered selfies, and all for FREE! This installation will now...

Commonwealth Stadium's field will get artificial grass to reduce injuries and generate additional revenue, apparently... BY EMIL TIEDEMANN I T may not seem like a big deal to most of us, but it could mean a lot for Commonwealth Stadium , Edmonton's largest sports and entertainment venue. I'm, of course, referring to the overhaul of the football arena's greenery, as the Edmonton Eskimos Football Club and the City of Edmonton have come together in a joint decision to turf the turf. "We both the the city and the Eskimos believe the time has come to make this change," said community services general manager Linda Cochrane , who is in support of replacing the stadium's grass with a state-of-the-art imitation lawn (pictured left). "This is the latest in artificial turf. It is of the same genre as what we have at Clarke Stadium and what we have had so much success with." Edmonton remains the only one of the eight CFL cities who hasn't yet convert...

U2, Bon Jovi & John Mayer are amongst the major acts coming to town in the new year BY EMIL TIEDEMANN O VER the last few years Edmonton has become a preferred destination for some of the world's most celebrated music acts to come to perform. Why?! Well, Alberta's economy was numero uno in the nation during those years, and amongst the most stable on the continent, which meant that plenty of Edmontonians had plenty of expendable funds. As it turns out, many of the major concerts in E-town would either sell out or come damn near close. It also didn't hurt that the music industry was on the opposite end of a boom, suffering deeper with every passing year, as record labels watched album sales drop substantially, and illegal downloading take over as the favoured way to gather music. That meant that musicians were forced to hit the road more and more, in order to make up for lost revenue from those dramatically-weakened record sales. During these past few years Edmonton has ...

Come rain or high winds, as the old adage declares, the show must go on! BY EMIL TIEDEMANN I MAGINE 60,000 men, women and children--most at variant stages of drunkeness--pounding their soaked fists into pouring skies and chanting "Oi! Oi! Oi!" Imagine a darkened football stadium full of adrenaline-hyped rock fanatics begging for Angus Young , a 54-year-old Scot, to strip off his trademark schoolboy uniform to bare his AC/DC undies (see video below)! Now try and imagine lightning bolts criss-crossing the evening sky as Brian Johnson screams "I'm a rolling thunder, a pouring rain...my lightning flashes across the sky"! I have no need to imagine such things, for I lived it last night! The Wednesday, August 26, 2009 AC/DC concert at Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium was a concert for the ages, and this city's most memorable in years, perhaps decades! It was a rare opportunity for a town in love with the rockers from 'Down Under' to converge u...