North America's largest outdoor comedy festival returns to Halifax for its third summer at the Garrison Grounds, featuring a 19+ door policy and a mix of national and local talent.
The Great Outdoors Comedy Festival returns to the Garrison Grounds from August 6 to 9, 2026. It's the festival's third summer at the site, which sits at the base of Citadel Hill and looks out over the waterfront. The grounds act as a natural amphitheatre, and the shows run rain or shine, so you'll want to keep an eye on the weather before you head up the hill.
The festival bills itself as North America's biggest outdoor comedy festival, and it lives up to the name by building what it calls the largest outdoor comedy club in North America across parks and grounds in cities throughout Canada and the US. In Halifax, that means the Garrison Grounds become a temporary comedy venue for four days. It's a 19+ door policy, so make sure you've got your ID on you.
While the lineup for this edition hasn't been confirmed yet, the festival has a history of booking big names. Past headliners include Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Burr, John Mulaney, Theo Von, Tom Segura, Tony Hinchcliffe, Nate Bargatze, Bert Kreischer, Aziz Ansari, Whitney Cummings and Anthony Jeselnik, with local talent filling out the bills. If you've caught any of those names in the past, you've got a good sense of the kind of acts they tend to bring in.
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There's a community side to it too. The 2025 50/50 raised C$112,750 through the Great Outdoors Community Fund for the Canadian Progress Club: Halifax, and the organisers acknowledge the unceded Mi'kmaw territory on which the grounds sit. The festival runs from August 6 to 9 at the Garrison Grounds, Citadel Hill, in downtown Halifax.
