The 11th annual Architecture and the City festival officially began its month-long celebration during its opening night party this past weekend in San Francisco, California. The yearly San Francisco festival is described as the largest architectural event of its kind in the U.S. With "Home: My San Francisco" as this year's theme, the festival invites the public to join the fun with a variety of events and activities throughout the city. — bustler.net

Taking place on the island of Sandhornøy in the Arctic Circle region of Norway, SALT will host its opening festivities this weekend, starting August 29 to September 1. Founded in 2010 by acclaimed curator Helga-Marie Nordby and cultural entrepreneur Erlend Mogård-Larsen, SALT celebrates the rarely traversed arctic landscape and promotes Norway's contributions to art and design history. — bustler.net

This month, audiences will be able to check out the first program to emerge from Vergne's nascent administration: Step and Repeat, a multidisciplinary festival of performing arts, takes place at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA over four Saturday evenings, beginning Sept. 13 [...] Step and Repeat will feature a unique nightly lineup of poetry readings, noise/experimental music, performance art, stand-up comedy, live bands and deejays, all presented side by side. — LA Weekly

If you couldn't get enough photos of the 22 installations at the 15th International Garden Festival in Quebec's Reford Gardens, you're in for a little treat. Established in 2000, the International Garden Festival is one of the biggest events of its kind in the world and it continues to gain recognition...The Gardens will remain open until September 28, 2014. — bustler.net

Sixty-five international designers created 22 garden installations at the 15th International Garden Festival, which opened this past weekend at the iconic Reford Gardens (aka les Jardins de Métis) in Quebec, Canada. Established in 2000, the event is one of the biggest garden festivals in the world. Located along the edge of the St. Lawrence River, the various installations are a playful reminder about the value of landscape architecture and nature in everyday living. — bustler.net

It's party prep time for the City of Karlsruhe in Germany. Berlin-based architecture firm J. MAYER H. and Rubner Holzbau were recently commissioned by the city to design a temporary pavilion for its 300th anniversary in 2015. The wooden pavilion will be built in Schlosspark and serve as an event venue for the celebration. Construction will begin in March 2015. — bustler.net

Called Lumiere, it's a four-day festival expected to attract tens of thousands of spectators to see the city's historic cathedrals, walls, bridges and squares illuminated by splashes of light. Projects range from LED and neon sculptures to large-scale projections by leading artists and lighting designers from Ireland and beyond. — cnn.com

The second Genius Loci Weimar festival took place in Weimar, Germany last weekend from Aug. 9-11. The annual festival is a growing event that celebrates and gathers talent in the emerging art form of videomapping. After last year's success, Genius Loci Weimar has expanded to include in its program a competition, symposium, videomapping workshops, and an exhibition in cooperation with the Bauhaus University Weimar. — bustler.net

"Are festivals and biennales dynamic catalysts to discuss and celebrate the city and architectural culture?" asks the Architecture Foundation, which is putting on the event as part of London's own month-long festival of architecture. "Or are they calculated devices of tourism and industrial promotion?" — guardian.co.uk

After 26 years of designing restaurants in New York City, David Rockwell has become a go-to for gourmands. [...] This weekend, however, Rockwell showed off his set-design skills at Googa Mooga, the massive two-day outdoor food festival that debuted Saturday in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. — artinfo.com