Get involved with Evergreen Festival
Are you interested in getting involved with Halifax’s annual Evergreen Festival? Learn more about how your business can get involved.
Quick links to get involved:
More information for businesses:
Evergreen Assets (photo, video, graphics)
About Evergreen Festival
The Evergreen Festival will bring the spirit of the season to Halifax from November 25-December 18, 2022.
Evergreen Festival is a 4-week-long showcase of Nova Scotian culture, food, spirits, craft, art, and memorable winter experiences. It uniquely and intentionally embraces Nova Scotia’s approaching winter and holiday season, bringing communities to life with music, light, and joy.
The Festival is made up of walkable, and safe outdoor experiences dispersed along the Halifax waterfront, Downtown Halifax, and parts of Spring Garden Road and Downtown Dartmouth.
Curated by Develop Nova Scotia, in partnership with Discover Halifax, Evergreen Festival invites locals and visitors alike to bundle up, get outside and enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of the festive season in Downtown Halifax and beyond.
LONG TERM VISION
To become the signature regional attraction of the holiday season, driving a long-term extension of the tourism season.
Get involved
The 4-week long festival consists of of a variety of experiential, event-based and exploration-driven activities. Sign up is easy and participation is free.
Businesses can get involved with the following festival elements.
Evergreen Market
A pillar of the festival is the Evergreen Market on the Halifax waterfront, an outdoor showcase of Nova Scotian artists, crafters, producers, and creators. Consisting of 24 temporary wooden ‘chalets’, the Evergreen Market will welcome vendors from across Nova Scotia to the festival.
Who can participate: Businesses, organizations, independent artists, producers and collectives
Where will market vendors be listed? evergreenfestns.com/market
How to get involved: Learn more here.
Questions? Contact Jenna Rideout, Develop Nova Scotia
Evergreen Bright
Evergreen Bright is a walkable outdoor trail of twinkling holiday light displays and installations along the Halifax waterfront, throughout downtown Halifax, downtown Dartmouth, and beyond.
Who can participate: Any business with a physical location
Where will light displays be listed? evergreenfestns.com/lights
How to get involved: Contact Jenna Rideout at Develop Nova Scotia about creating a light display or installation.
Evergreen Cocoa Trail
Local businesses are invited to offer holiday hot chocolates to help keep spirits high and bellies warm as folks explore the festival. Businesses are encouraged to be as inventive and creative as they wish to make their hot chocolate extra special!
Who can participate: Any business with a physical location
Where will participating businesses be listed? evergreenfestns.com/cocoa
How to get involved: Submit cocoa offers here
Evergreen Getaways (Hotel Deals)
Hotels are encouraged to create packages that make it easy for locals and visitors to stay for a single night or an entire weekend of the festival!
Who can participate: Hotels
Where will hotel deals be listed? Hotel deals will be listed on this page, with a direct link out from the Evergreen Festival website.
How to get involved: Submit hotel deals here
Questions? Contact Holly Chessman, Discover Halifax
Evergreen Events
Unique events and programming are a part of the Evergreen Festival experience. To get your event listed on both the Discover Halifax event calendar and the Evergreen Festival event calendar, submit online and make sure to select the checkbox labelled “Evergreen Festival Event”.
Who can participate: Holiday events happening in Halifax from November 25-December 18, 2022
Where will events be listed? Events will be listed on both the Evergreen Festival website (evergreenfestns.com/events) and the Discover Halifax event calendar (discoverhalifaxns.com/events).
How to get involved: Email your event information to Stacey Mungur (submission form coming soon)
Evergreen Stage
Evergreen Stage programming is brought to you by JazzEast Rising, the same team that brings you the annual Halifax Jazz Festival.
Questions? For information about Evergreen Stage programming contact programming@halifaxjazzfestival.ca
For inquiries about how to get involved with the festival, please email Jenna Rideout at Develop Nova Scotia for more information.
Why participate?
– Encourage safe movement throughout the city during the tourism shoulder season.
– Join your community in supporting and celebrating our local economy, culture, and one another.
– Increase visibility for your business during the holiday shopping season.
– Incremental sales for existing and pop-up businesses and operators.
– Be part of making the city feel alive.
Evergreen Assets (photo, video, graphics)
Free photo, video and graphic assets, available for businesses and organizations to use to promote the festival:
Evergreen Festival photography & video
Social Media
Instagram: @evergreenfestns
Facebook: @evergreenfestns
Twitter: @evergreenfestns
Participating Business FAQ
The primary opportunity for small businesses without existing premises is to apply for a space in one of the temporary chalets within the Evergreen Market.
However, another excellent opportunity is to partner with a business that has premises to deliver a pop-up experience. Imagine a craft pop-up at a hotel or a local beauty business at a spa. There are many opportunities to work together to create some magic.
If you are a business interested in participating but are unsure of where to start, reach out and we can help match you with potential partners!
The Festival will strategically leverage the Halifax waterfront as the draw, however, the idea is to entice people here and then sell them on experiencing everything (and every place!) the holiday season has to offer in the Halifax region.
All areas of Halifax can and should participate. We recommend creating an event that can be featured within the upcoming website events calendar. For food & beverage establishments, we recommend signing up to participate in the Cocoa Trail program. Or, if you have another idea for getting involved, let us know!
Yes, absolutely! All businesses are encouraged to decorate and put up lights! Please email jenna.rideout@developns.ca with the subject line “Evergreen Bright” to get involved.
Curated by Jazz East Rising Association, the Evergreen Stage will be a showcase multidisciplinary live programming throughout the Evergreen Festival. For more information contact programming@halifaxjazzfestival.ca.
Festival runs rain or shine, but events or activations affected by the weather will be rescheduled or cancelled on a case-by-case basis. We will use the festival website and/or social media channels to communicate changes with the public.
Only the market will follow specific open and closed hours. While the light installations will be most active in the evening and act as a strong draw, there are no restrictions as to when a business may activate its own programming.
We will be featuring participating businesses and events from outside the downtown core on our website. We’d also encourage businesses to engage with the Evergreen Festival accounts on social media as much as possible. We will be reposting, retweeting, and resharing information about participating businesses wherever it makes sense.
The vision for the festival was to be as inclusive as possible and to celebrate as many cultures and beliefs as possible. We encourage any interested local group or event to reach out to discuss how we can get you involved.
There will always be room on the event calendar to feature any local events throughout the downtown core and beyond.
Wherever we can, we will try to help bring parties together to find collaborations and shared spaces to activate. There is no shortage of ways to get involved.
The main marketing priorities for the festival are to build public awareness of the event and to support local businesses, which includes integrating our amazing local media within the plan.
Hotel deals will be listed on this page, with a direct link out from the Evergreen Festival website. These hotel deals will also be featured as part of Discover Halifax’s shopping campaign, running from November 2022 to January 2023.
Sign up to be part of the Evergreen Cocoa Trail
Local businesses are invited to offer holiday hot chocolates to help keep spirits high and bellies warm as folks explore the festival. Businesses are encouraged to be as inventive and creative as they wish to make their hot chocolate extra special!
Note: If you have any trouble submitting your offer through the form below, please send the details of you offer directly to smungur@discoverhalifaxns.com. Please include the name of your cocoa, a brief description, the price, whether it will be available for dine in and/or take out, and any other relevant information for your listing.
