Prairie Fire is a nine-foot rearing horse built from faceted aluminum on a steel base and lit from below. It has a button, and pressing it sends a one-second burst of flame from the horse's mouth. Its maker, True North Absurdities of Calgary, chose the horse as a Western symbol that Alberta and Arizona share, and set it as fire and light against the water of the Arizona Canal.
That button sums up this year's festival. Canal Convergence 2026 runs Friday, Nov. 6 through Sunday, Nov. 15 at the Scottsdale Waterfront. Admission is free. Almost every artwork on the canal this year takes a piece of Western mythology, like the horse, the balloon, the card table, or the desert chorus, and leaves the controls to whoever walks up. You plan this year by deciding which pieces you want to work.
A Theme Chosen for the City's 75th Year
Last year's festival ran Nov. 7–16, 2025, under the theme "SHOWTIME." The 2026 theme is "Western Nature." Scottsdale Arts says it covers the American West, the Southwest and Arizona, "from water resources and native flora and fauna to the diverse cultures and histories that shape the region." The timing explains the choice. This is the festival's 15th year and the City of Scottsdale's 75th anniversary.
Jennifer Gill, deputy director and curator of Canal Convergence, made the connection directly in Arizona Digital Free Press in July. "With Canal Convergence planning its 15th year and the City of Scottsdale commemorating its 75-year anniversary, there is no better time to celebrate all the unique visual and cultural landscapes that make up our state and region," she said. According to the same report, artists were encouraged to take on water resources, climate, native plants and wildlife, and the defining traits of the West.
The festival covers the canal and its pedestrian paths and bridges between Scottsdale Road and Goldwater Boulevard, with Solstice Park at 4420 N. Scottsdale Road. That's the same stretch of the Waterfront as past years. What's different is what you're asked to do once you get there.
Eleven Artworks, Grouped by What You Do
The 2026 artwork lineup includes studios from Melbourne, Montreal, Calgary, New Orleans and Marrickville, Australia. It also includes three from Arizona: Shaoyu Su x LedPulse of Tempe, and Jolly Productions and Walter Productions, both of Phoenix. Sorting the pieces by what they ask you to do is the easiest way to plan an evening.
Ride
- Dream Rider, by William Nemitoff with Curious Form, is an oversized horse made of weathering steel clad in iridescent polycarbonate. You climb inside, go up the neck and slide down the glowing mane.
- PERIGEE, by Chalk River Labs, is an aluminum projection sculpture 26 feet wide and 14 feet tall. It has two swings, Western-inspired animation and an original soundtrack. Earlier Scottsdale Arts announcements, including the September 30 release, called it "APOGEE."
Steer
- Sky Wrangler, also by Nemitoff and Curious Form, is a 25-foot hot-air balloon sculpture. You turn its rotating basket and pull a burner-style lever, and that changes the projected rainbow light and the historic Western film footage.
- Prairie Fire is the flame-throwing horse with the button.
Bet
- The Way The West Was Sold, by Jolly Productions, is built from vintage posters, newspapers, radio and a 1950s living room with a television. A trunk unfolds into a 16-foot blackjack table where you wager stories, favors or small objects. Cameras send the bets to a television across the water. It's the one piece that takes the myth itself as its subject, and specifically how the West was marketed.
Sing
- Desert Choir, by Ottomata, gives you a microphone that turns your voice into light trails and the calls of Southwestern wildlife. They play on three screens shaped like saguaro blossoms.
Read and walk through
- grandmother turtle, by In Theory Art Studios with Laura Tohe and Nora Naranjo-Morse, is a powder-coated steel desert tortoise shell cut with contemporary petroglyphs and poetry and lit with interactive projection mapping.
- KaKtos, by Amigo & Amigo, is a forest of giant inflatable cacti, lit from inside and printed with bold Memphis-style patterns, that you wander through.
- Another Slice of Reality: An Evolving Nature, by Shaoyu Su x LedPulse, hangs inside the Marshall Way Bridge. Its central volume and four pillars respond to sound, movement and the people around them.
- the weight of light, by In Theory Art Studio, is a 14-foot crystalline lightning bolt with eight interactive shards. Its buttons set off light, sound and a vertical lightning strike.
Watch
- Western Fire Garden, by Walter Productions, floats on the canal. Its sculpted native desert plants and animal silhouettes glow with LED outlines and sound, then turn into a fire show choreographed live, with blasts up to 20 feet. Shows run nightly at 6:30, 7:30 and 8:30 p.m.
The fire show is the only scheduled spectacle in the lineup. You can work everything else at your own pace between shows.
The Workshops Come From Arizona Communities
The hands-on approach carries into the workshops at the Nationwide Innovation Zone. Scottsdale Arts' September 30 announcement says workshops this year are led by Indigenous and Latinx artists and organizations whose work draws on the region's cultural and historical practices. The three named workshops are painting with natural pigments with the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands on Monday, Nov. 9; beading with Maxica Colectivo on Tuesday, Nov. 10; and bandana printing with Jeremy Arviso on Sunday, Nov. 15. Some workshops are free drop-ins and others need tickets and pre-registration.
Arviso, a Phoenix-based Indigenous designer, also curates the returning Dress-Up Space. This year it's called "Working West" and he created it with Diné hatter Geri James and Diné weaver Gloria Fain. "'Working West' is an invitation to customize, create and wear your story," Arviso said in the Scottsdale Arts release.
At the Scottsdale Arts Roundabout on Marshall Way, community partners will host Western-themed activities. They include CALA Alliance, Monarca Center for Healing and Justice, Art Heals Arizona, RUMBO, Puente, Cahokia, Western Spirit: Scottsdale's Museum of the West, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Scottsdale, Arizona Dream Act Coalition and S'edav Va'aki Museum.
Weeknights Now Have Their Own Programs
The Herberger Stage at Soleri Plaza is adding weekday programming for the first time. If you live within walking distance, a Tuesday or Thursday visit now offers more than a quieter version of Saturday.
| Date | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Nightly | Fire shows at 6:30, 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. | Western Fire Garden, on the canal |
| Nightly | Beer and Wine Garden with food trucks and dessert vendors | Next to the Herberger Stage |
| Weekends | Live music, with headliners QVLN, a Latin pop act, and Nodaway, an indie rock band | Herberger Stage, Soleri Plaza |
| Thursday, Nov. 12 | "WEARABLE WILDS: Fashion, Technology & Ecologies of the West," a fashion show by ASU FIDM students, plus "Working West" garments | Herberger Stage |
| Saturday, Nov. 14 | NicoleOlson|MovementChaos dance performance | At the Chalk River Labs artwork |
| Sunday, Nov. 15 | Scottsdale Community College Dance, 7 and 8 p.m. | Site-specific locations |
Scottsdale Arts hasn't announced which weekend each headliner plays. Check the performances page before you go. In total, the festival schedules nearly 100 workshops, performances, tours and other activities over its 10 nights.
Plan Around Closing Time
Hours depend on the night. The festival runs 6 to 10 p.m. on Nov. 6–7 and Nov. 13–14, and 6 to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, Nov. 8–12, and on closing night, Sunday, Nov. 15. On a weeknight that leaves time for all three fire shows if you arrive by 6:30.
Getting home takes a little planning:
- Park in a garage. Old Town's public garages are free, and Waterfront Underground and Southbridge Underground are both on the Old Town parking map. Street parking has a three-hour limit, which is about how long a full evening here lasts.
- Don't count on the trolley for the ride home. The city's published schedule runs Monday through Friday, 5:45 a.m. to 7:45 p.m., so service ends before the festival does and doesn't run on weekends.
- Book a tour if you want the backstory. The daily one-hour art tours cost $6 and use audio headsets, with ASL and Spanish translation on selected nights. SRP canal-history tours are free with an RSVP. Tickets are on sale now.
Old Town merchants are running festival offers, collected on the Old Town Scottsdale event page. Cobre Kitchen + Cocktails lists a $10 margarita, $8 mule and $7 draft beer from 4 to 6 p.m. when you mention the event, which works well before the 6:30 fire show. Malee's on Main lists 10% off food and a "Canal Splash" cocktail. Chin Up Donuts offers buy-one-get-one-half-off specialty lattes, and ZuZu offers 20% off food and drinks when you mention Canal Convergence. Western Spirit: Scottsdale's Museum of the West lists buy-one-get-one admission, a natural pairing with this year's theme. At least one offer on that page has already expired, so confirm any deal with the business before you order.
The full map, with the info booth, parking, installation sites and rest areas, is on the Canal Convergence 2026 page.
If you live near the Waterfront and want to know which Old Town addresses put Canal Convergence within walking distance, Racquel Miller can share that block-by-block knowledge over coffee before the festival opens. Let's Connect.
