Edmonton\u2019s outdoor pools and spray parks are opening the taps for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n
The first of Edmonton\u2019s outdoor aquatic facilities will open starting on Friday, the city said in a Wednesday news release.<\/p>\n
The city will stagger the openings, starting with all district spray parks, such as Jackie Parker and Castle Downs, opening on Friday. The other spray parks will open on June 5. A map<\/a> of all 78 spray parks across the city is being updated on their operating status and hours.<\/p>\n \u201cOur city\u2019s five outdoor pools have always opened in sequence, rather than all at once,\u201d said Christina Chu with the City of Edmonton. \u201cThis is to help operations set up and for staff allocations. <\/p>\n The first of the city\u2019s outdoor swimming pools to open will be the W\u00eehkw\u00eant\u00f4win Outdoor Pool on May 20, followed by Mill Creek Outdoor Swimming Pool on May 23, then the Queen Elizabeth Outdoor Pool on May 30.<\/p>\n Fred Broadstock and the Borden Natural Swimming Pool will open on June 6 and June 20, respectively.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve always tried to open at least one outdoor pool in time for May long weekend, but there is a delay in opening outdoor pools this year due to the late snowfall we had in late April,\u201d Chu said.<\/p>\n Reservations and concessions changes<\/p>\n While it\u2019s not required, Chu recommends making reservations<\/a> with any outdoor pools, especially during the warmer days of the spring and summer. That way, patrons can avoid lines and guarantee access to public swimming at their desired time.<\/p>\n The city has made a slight change to the reservation process in 2026, now requiring payment one day before the reservation time, with a deadline of 11:59 p.m.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving advance payment helps staff understand our capacity so we can let in drop-in participants into the pools earlier,\u201d Chu said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn previous years, some people would make the reservation but didn\u2019t show up. Patrons can pay in advance to hold the spot and still request a refund up to one minute before their time slot if they need to cancel.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The city has also decided to remove concession stands from outdoor pool sites, asking patrons instead to bring their own food and empty water bottles. Chu said the decision came after the city noticed decreasing interest in concessions from patrons.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving said that, the city does want to ensure we\u2019re delivering a quality service, so we are looking at procuring vending machines with a variety of options for the public,\u201d Chu said. \u201cWe are also inviting food vendors, such as food trucks, to set up in the parking lots, which they may do on hot and busy days.\u201d<\/p>\n Chu said the operating hours and availability of outdoor pools and spray parks are dependent on the weather. To learn if a facility is affected by weather, check the city\u2019s facility notifications page<\/a>.<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n Bookmark our website and support our journalism:\u00a0Don\u2019t miss the news you need to know \u2014 add\u00a0EdmontonJournal.com<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0EdmontonSun.com<\/a>\u00a0to your bookmarks and\u00a0sign up for our newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites.\u00a0The Edmonton Journal<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0The Edmonton Sun<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Edmonton\u2019s outdoor pools and spray parks are opening the taps for the 2026 season. The first of Edmonton\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,247700,93273,23752,247697,247698,247699],"class_list":["post-673242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-christina-chu","tag-david-bloom","tag-edmonton","tag-outdoor-pool","tag-outdoor-pools","tag-spray-parks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}