Things to do in Ottawa this week: September 13–19

Ottawa hosts the 2026 IWBF Wheelchair Basketball World Championships this week, and it is the kind of event that reshapes how the city moves. Men's Turkey versus Argentina and women's Germany versus France tip off Sunday morning at Carleton University's Raven's Nest, with the main draw running across multiple venues including TD Place. The Glebe has already mobilized—nearly 40 businesses have received free portable ramps to welcome fans and athletes. If you care about sport and accessibility, Sunday's opening rounds are unmissable.

The weather breaks your week neatly: Sunday is overcast but dry, perfect for getting to the games or watching Kanata's inaugural GFNY cycling marathon, which closes major roads from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. and sends two days' worth of foot traffic through the neighbourhood. Monday stays cool and clear—17 degrees at the high end—but Tuesday and Wednesday drizzle in, so lock those days indoors. By Friday, the rain clears just as The Australian Pink Floyd Show rolls into the Hard Rock Cafe at 7 p.m., a Pink Floyd tribute that has been recreating the band's elaborate 1980s and 90s world tours since 1988 in Adelaide, complete with lasers, inflatables, and the kind of visual spectacle that justifies the ticket price for anyone who grew up with The Wall. That same night, UB40 plays History Ottawa—the English reggae band that has charted over 50 UK hits since forming in Birmingham in 1978. It is a rare split billing of two genuinely significant touring acts on one evening.

Midweek offers something sharper. Tinariwen, the Tuareg collective from the Sahara region, plays the Bronson Centre on Wednesday at 8 p.m. They are pioneers of desert blues—guitar-driven Tuareg and African music fused with Western rock—and their live set is hypnotic and propulsive; this is the kind of act that rewards a full hour of attention. Death by Stereo, the Orange County hardcore punk band, hits The 27 Club on Monday for $32 if you are after something louder and leaner.

The Great Gatsby touring production continues at the National Arts Centre on Sunday at 1 p.m., with a second performance the same day. Steph Tolev's The Canadian Filth Queen Tour lands Thursday at Algonquin Commons Theatre in Nepean—a 9-kilometre drive from downtown—if stand-up comedy is your play.

Beyond the stage, Stittsville's newest draw is September Studio, a microroastery on Iver Road that opened in June and has already earned real devotion for single-origin coffees with fruit-forward tasting notes—their Colombian brew genuinely tastes like blueberry pie. It is exactly the kind of third place to land before or after an evening out, especially on cooler nights like Tuesday and Wednesday when you want to warm your hands around something precise and well-made. For heavier eating, The Shore Club and Luxe Bistro both anchor the steakhouse side of the city's better tables; either works as a landing spot before heading to a 7 p.m. show.

If I had one night this week, it would be Friday at the Hard Rock Cafe for The Australian Pink Floyd Show—the kind of spectacle that reminds you why people still go out for live music, and the only moment all week the weather actually cooperates with something truly grand.