Folk on the Rocks is a local music festival that has been an annual occurrence since 1980, and features a wide variety of musical acts, and is not limited to only Folk. In the past, it has drawn acts such as Buffy Sainte-Marie, the Trailer Park Boys, The Weakerthans, African Guitar Summit, Chirgilchin, The Odds, Stan Rogers, Gord Downie, Mad Bomber Society, Gob, Sam Roberts Band, Sloan, Great Lake Swimmers, and Hawksley Workman. The Midnight Sun Golf Tournament, with games played through the city's well-lit summer nights, is also a significant cultural event. In previous years, there was an annual summer festival known as Raven Mad Daze, a street festival celebrated as part of the summer solstice. The festival was not celebrated in 2007 because an organizer was not found for the event.
During the winter, there is the Snowking Winter Festival, featuring a snow castle on Great Slave Lake. The Long John Jamboree, a new winter festival, is taking place March 23–25, 2012 on the frozen Yellowknife Bay next to the Snowking castle, in Yellowknife's Old Town neighbourhood. Events include an ice sculpture contest sponsored by De Beers Canada, cultural events like Dene hand games, games, live music, a beer garden, food vendors, skating rink, artist's market, and much more. The Caribou Carnival, once held annually on Frame Lake, has not been held in recent years. In 2008, Yellowknife hosted the Arctic Winter Games.
In 2007 The White Stripes played in Yellowknife for their tour of Canada. The entire tour was recorded for a documentary called Under Great White Northern Lights
