These Edmonton shops will be holding prize giveaways for Indie Bookstore Day

You’ll be booked and busy this weekend with reading in Edmonton, that’s for sure.

The Edmonton Indie Bookstore Extravaganza is a team-up between a bunch of pop-up bookstores and locally owned shops within the city. During this event, running this weekend, you can visit as many participating bookstores and get entered to win multiple prizes, with contributions from each individual bookstore.

This whole weekend event is to celebrate Canadian Indie Bookstore Day. Landing exactly on April 25, this day celebrates the independent booksellers — not to mention the readers, writers, illustrators, and publishers who make this day possible.

What to expect

With local bookstores like The Book Boudoir, Porch Light Books, and more, you’re sure to have a grand ‘ol time this year.

The whole point of this event is to support our local bookstores, with the intention of hopefully visiting some new stores and places, all while entering yourself for a chance to win some great prizes.

Keep in mind, you do not need to visit every bookstore to be entered to win a prize. Starting in year two, the team decided to make the stakes less stressful. This means you do not need to visit every single bookstore listed in the passport to qualify to win a prize. Each bookstore will have a unique QR code to scan in order to get points associated with that visit.

This means the more bookstores you visit, the higher your chances of winning a prize!

Some of these bookstores have multiple locations, but you’ll only need to scan the QR at one location to enter. Keep this in mind when making your travel plans.

Speaking of travel plans, there will be a bus dedicated specifically to this event, which you can take to get further on your bookstore journey. More information can be found on the organization’s website.

If you’re ready to get your read on, what are you waiting for? This weekend is sure to be the story of your lives.

When: Saturday, April 25, 2026, and Sunday, April 26, 2026
Time: Various times
Where: Multiple bookstores across Edmonton
Cost: Free

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