This Free Ottawa Festival Will Take You Back In Time With A Roller Rink & Outdoor Diner

Don't be a dork, this free festival in Ottawa will have you feeling groovy and ready to rock n' roll. You might be thinking "as if", but Ottawa's Bank Street is ready to celebrate the best of the 1950s to the 1990s and it's sure to be da bomb.

You can cruise through five fabulous decades at The Best of Times festival with themed food, performances and activities. Get ready to watch Elvis Presley come back to life, play old-school arcade games and skate around on a roller rink on June 18 and 19.

Skating on a retro roller skate rink, outside on city streets during a summer festival. Courtesy of Bank Street BIA

You won't need a DeLorean to feel like you're in Back to The Future while you celebrate all the best things about the decades between the 1950s and the 1990s. Bank Street will be full of fun backdrops and themed decorations mixing the eras together. The street will be alive with energy as you watch various buskers and artists.

You can look forward to watching an Elvis Presley impersonator, hip hop dancers, aerobatic performers, street artists, Drag Queens and DJs. Then, you can boogey your way on over to the retro roller rink. You can grab a pair of roller skates to skate and dance around to a playlist of throwback beats.

Once you've worked up a sweat, there will be drinks and eats at a pop-up bar in the "Thunderbirds diner". The outdoor diner has a specialty menu full of your favourite foods from the past, including burgers, shakes, candy floss and old-fashioned popcorn. The vintage arcade games nearby will let you test your gaming skills.

This free event takes place along Bank Street and the road will be closed to traffic from Gladstone Avenue to Waverley Street. The festival runs on Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. and Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.