The (hot) dog days of summer are just around the corner, and Calgary’s inaugural hotdog festival — Dog Days — is set to run from Saturday until June 6.
Throughout the two-week festival, Calgarians can visit 54 restaurants and vendors across the city to try their Dog Days submission.
Press and Post, a marketing and public relations agency, is organizing the festival.
“Everyone has either selected a hotdog off their menu or created a custom hotdog for the festival,” said Ayla Gilmer, communications manager for Press and Post.
In addition to eating a hearty hotdog, festival-goers will also be supporting a good paws — uh, cause — as $1 from each Dog Days creation sold will be donated to the Pet Access League Society (PALS), a Calgary-based non-profit.
“All of our team members have pets — dogs, cats and actually a rabbit as well,” Gilmer said. “We all love animals and know first-hand the benefits of spending time with them. Supporting PALS and pet therapy was an easy cause to get behind.”
PALS volunteers take dogs to visit with people experiencing anxious or high-stress situations, including hospital stays or school exams.
According to the charity’s website, PALS provides pet visitation therapy at more than 50 facilities across Calgary, including medical facilities and seniors’ homes.
The charity’s four-legged friends are also taken to Calgary Public Library branches for a program that helps children learning to read.
Gilmer said the idea of hosting a festival centred on hotdogs emerged last Christmas. She said she was aware of other food-specific festivals in Calgary — devoted to hot chocolate, ice cream, pizza, and mac and cheese — and was surprised no one had thought of doing the same for hotdogs.
“Hotdogs deserved some love, we thought,” she said.
“It’s just an exciting way for people to get out and check out some restaurants they’ve maybe never visited before and try some fun hotdogs.”
Participating venues are spread throughout the city and surrounding communities, and include restaurants, food trucks and vendors at food courts. A full list can be found at dogdaysyyc.com
The festival will begin Saturday with a kickoff party at Cold Garden Beverage Co. Calgarians are invited to the Inglewood brewery’s patio from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for hotdogs from The Dogfather food truck, drinks and visits with the PALS pups.
One dollar from each of The Dogfather’s Cheesy Pawrito Dog will support PALS.
The location was chosen due to Cold Garden’s dog-friendly policy, according to Gilmer, who added Cold Garden will also donate $1 from each pint sold of its Pool Party Blonde ale.
“We wanted to have a location that was super dog-friendly, so we could have all the PALS dogs there and so people could bring their dogs as well,” she said.