When did Canal Convergence start expecting you to do something? If you've walked the Scottsdale Waterfront in past Novembers, you know the routine. You loop the canal, watch the lights on the water, maybe catch a fire show, and head home. The 2026 edition opens Friday, Nov. 6, and it is built differently. Of the 11 artworks on the roster, nine react to something a visitor does. You might press a button, pull a lever, sing into a microphone, climb a horse or sit on a swing.
That changes how you plan an evening there. The event runs 10 free nights through Nov. 15 under the theme "Western Nature." Scottsdale Arts frames it as the festival's 15th year, landing in the year the City of Scottsdale marks its 75th anniversary.
The controls, piece by piece
According to the Scottsdale Arts artwork pages, most pieces come with a specific action. Here is what each one asks of you.
| Artwork | Studio | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Prairie Fire | True North Absurdities, Calgary | Press a lit button. A 9-foot aluminum rearing horse sends a one-second burst of flame 7 to 10 feet into the air |
| the weight of light | In Theory Art Studio, Huntsville, Utah | Press buttons that set off an LED lightning strike and thunder on a 14-foot iridescent bolt |
| Sky Wrangler | William Nemitoff with Curious Form, New Orleans | Rotate the basket and pull a burner-style lever on a 25-foot hot-air-balloon sculpture |
| Desert Choir | Ottomata, Montreal | Sing or call into microphone stations along the canal, and projected desert animals answer |
| PERIGEE | Chalk River Labs, Melbourne | Take one of two swings on a projection-mapped set 26 feet wide and 14 feet tall |
| Dream Rider | William Nemitoff with Curious Form | Climb into a giant horse and slide down its glowing mane |
| The Way The West Was Sold | Jolly Productions, Phoenix | Bet stories, favors or small treasures at a 16-foot blackjack table |
| Another Slice of Reality: An Evolving Nature | Shaoyu Su x LedPulse, Tempe | Move and make sound inside Marshall Way Bridge to shift the light |
| grandmother turtle | In Theory Art Studios with Laura Tohe and Nora Naranjo-Morse | Interact with projection mapping on a desert tortoise sculpture |
The two that don't need you are KaKtos by Amigo & Amigo of Marrickville, Australia, and Walter Productions' Western Fire Garden. KaKtos is a forest of giant inflatable cacti in loud Memphis-style patterns that you walk through. Western Fire Garden is the one with a clock attached.
A few of the interactive pieces carry more than a light trick. The Way The West Was Sold is staged as a frontier-media hoax. Vintage ads, radio and TV steer you to the blackjack table, and cameras send your wager back onto the television. grandmother turtle has laser-cut petroglyphs and words by Laura Tohe etched on the tortoise's shell. Each of the eight shards around the weight of light holds a small world built around climate hope.
One naming note before you go looking for the swings. A September Scottsdale Arts release calls the Chalk River Labs piece "APOGEE," while the artwork roster lists it as PERIGEE. They are the same studio and the same swing set.
The fire shows set the clock
A swing set with two seats or a single flame button serves one visitor at a time. The one schedule on the canal that doesn't move is Walter Productions' Western Fire Garden. It is a lit, sound-producing garden of saguaros, agaves, barrel cactus and desert animals that becomes a live-fire show every night at 6:30, 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. Scottsdale Arts says the artists choreograph those shows live.
Add the event hours and the evening has a shape. Experience Scottsdale's event listing shows 6 to 10 p.m. on Nov. 6, 7, 13 and 14, and 6 to 9 p.m. on the other nights, including Sunday, Nov. 15, the closing night. On a weeknight, the 8:30 fire show is the last big moment before closing. That leaves roughly two and a half hours to get through nine pieces that each want a turn. On Fridays and Saturdays you get an extra hour after the final burn.
The event covers the Waterfront paths, bridges and canal between Scottsdale Road and Goldwater Boulevard, and the address is 4420 N. Scottsdale Rd. If you're counting on the free Scottsdale Trolley, the city lists its fixed routes as running weekdays until 7:45 p.m. That covers the trip in but not most of the evening.
Weeknights got their own stage this year
Scottsdale Arts lists weekday programming at the Herberger Stage as new for 2026. On Thursday, Nov. 12, ASU FIDM students present "WEARABLE WILDS: Fashion, Technology & Ecologies of the West," and Jeremy Arviso puts selected "Working West" garments on the same stage that night. The performance overview also lists a powwow demonstration, a Veterans Day celebration, line-dancing instruction and more fashion shows during the week.
Weeknights also bring the shortest hours, so the new stage programming sits alongside the 6 to 9 p.m. window. The beer and wine garden next to the Herberger Stage at Soleri Plaza is open every night, with food trucks, dessert vendors, beer, wine, canned cocktails and soft drinks.
Weekend music is fully booked on the Herberger Stage schedule:
- Friday, Nov. 6: Mare at 6 p.m., Space Traveler's Union at 7:15, Cameron Jeong at 8:30
- Saturday, Nov. 7: Mario Why at 6 p.m., Smokestack Lightning at 7:30, Goldwax Revival at 9
- Sunday, Nov. 8: The Melroses at 6 p.m., DORSTEN at 7:30
- Friday, Nov. 13: Faun Flora at 6 p.m., The Joeys at 7:30, QVLN at 8:45
- Saturday, Nov. 14: BBGail at 6 p.m., Myr at 7:15, Nodaway at 8:45
- Sunday, Nov. 15: Joey Gutos at 6 p.m., Brea Burns at 7:30
QVLN plays Latin pop and Nodaway plays indie rock, and Scottsdale Arts bills both as headliners. Both start at 8:45, just after the final fire show, on the two nights that stay open until 10.
The hands-on idea carries past the artwork
The same idea of joining in rather than watching shapes the workshops. Scottsdale Arts says this year's sessions at the Nationwide Innovation Zone are led by Indigenous and Latinx artists and organizations. The listed sessions:
- Nov. 8, 6:15 p.m.: Anda's Kitchen, Indigenous Foodways Storytelling and Blue Corn Cookie Decorating
- Nov. 9, 6:15 p.m.: Nocheztli cochineal painting with Ayling Dominguez, Angelina Mann and the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands
- Nov. 10, 6:15 p.m.: Flower Vine Beading with Maxica Colectivo
- Nov. 15: Bandana printing with Jeremy Arviso
Performances and drop-in workshops are free. Nightly art tours, ticketed workshops and some special events cost money, and Scottsdale Arts says those tickets are already on sale.
The "Working West" Dress-Up Space at the Nationwide Innovation Zone is free. Visitors try on and style garments made from reclaimed materials, curated by Arviso with Diné hatter Geri James and Diné weaver Gloria Fain. In Scottsdale Arts' September announcement, Arviso described the collaboration this way:
"Together, the collaboration creates an environment where fashion, textiles, design, and participation intersect, encouraging visitors not simply to look at the work but to enter it, interact with it and become part of the story."
At the Scottsdale Arts Roundabout at Marshall Way, community partners host western-themed activities. They include Western Spirit: Scottsdale's Museum of the West, S'edav Va'aki Museum, CALA Alliance, Art Heals Arizona, RUMBO, Puente, Cahokia, Monarca Center for Healing and Justice, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Scottsdale and the Arizona Dream Act Coalition.
Dance comes back in two forms. NicoleOlson|MovementChaos performs at the Chalk River Labs swing set on Nov. 14. Scottsdale Community College Dance gives two site-specific performances on Nov. 15 at 7 and 8 p.m.
If you'd rather have a guide
The paid art tour is the slower way through. One-hour walking tours leave nightly at 6 p.m., cost $9 and use audio headsets. The Nov. 9 tour adds ASL translation and the Nov. 11 tour adds Spanish. Scottsdale Arts asks you to arrive 10 minutes early and bring water. Leaving at 6 p.m. puts you back at the start just before the 7:30 fire show.
The canal itself has a tour too. SRP offers free one-hour canal-history walks on Nov. 6–8 and Nov. 13–15, and they require an RSVP. Check the start time on the SRP tour listing when you sign up.
Pairing a night with the 75th anniversary and Marshall Way
The city's anniversary calendar puts two afternoon programs inside the festival window. Scottsdale Heritage Connection Saturdays runs at Civic Center Library on Nov. 7 at 1 p.m. "The Grand Ladies and Gentlemen of Scottsdale: Big personalities. Bigger stories." takes place at 7506 E. Indian School Rd. on Nov. 9 at 1 p.m. Either one leaves the afternoon open before the canal lights come on at 6.
Marshall Way, the street that gives the festival's roundabout and bridge their names, has two new openings this fall. Old Town Scottsdale lists French Crêperie at 4225 N. Marshall Way, Suite 2, serving crêpes, French pastries and café fare, and Mavericks Hat Bar's new location at 4251 N. Marshall Way. Both celebrated openings on Oct. 24. After an evening in the "Working West" Dress-Up Space, which counts a Diné hatter among its collaborators, the hat bar fits the theme.
If your Waterfront plans include family visiting that week, and they start asking what it's like to own a home within walking distance of the canal, John Rowan is happy to talk through the streets around Marshall Way and Soleri Plaza with you. Let's Connect.
