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Celebrating all things Hamilton / Welcome Message
Arts + Culture

Readers and writers: Your guide to gritLIT 2026

The literary festival offers five days of readings, panels, workshops, and social events that celebrate writers of all kinds and the readers who read them. For 22 years, the Hamilton-born gritLIT has celebrated established writers, helped new ones develop, and given readers a front-row seat to well over…
Arts + Culture

World premiere shines a light on Canada, The Hip, and what home really means

It’s A Good Life If You Don’t Weaken, opening April 22 at Theatre Aquarius, is about connection, love, and saying something that needs to be said. That spirit, and the spirit of Gord Downie, are in the rehearsal room as this show comes to life, say its stars.
Arts + Culture

REVIEW: Calendar Girls is balm for weary souls

Story of group of English women posing nude to raise money for their church is a nuanced exploration of aging, expectation, disappointment, and refusing to accept limitations. Binbrook Little Theatre’s production features brave performances and a solid focus on the story. Uplifting stories seem hard to find these…
Arts + Culture

New music venues: This booker is back

Brodie Schwendiman, operator of the late and beloved Casbah, is back booking music in a new downtown venue called Ridiculous, and other live-music locations in the region. 2025 was a rollercoaster ride of a year for Brodie Schwendiman. The music club operator and booker has played a crucial…
Food + Drink

Chef Matty Matheson: By the books

The celebrity chef has now made his mark in Hamilton, with elevated pub Iron Cow Public House at TD Coliseum. So what can we glean about him from the recipes and stories in his three cookbooks?  For months, his name was on the lips of Hamilton food…
Arts + Culture

THE PLAYLIST

Dylan Hudecki is a Canadian indie-rock vet having played in many different bands, including By Divine Right, Cowlick, Slow Beach and The Dill. He’s a proud Hamiltonian who covers local album releases for HAMILTON CITY Magazine. TV FREAKS  – Blue Genie (garage, punk rock) Devotion, distortion, and the…
Food + Drink

Getting out: Music & menus

If live tunes help your food taste better, here’s a list of places where the grub is as good as the setlist! With this issue being HAMILTON CITY Magazine’s music issue, it seemed fitting to round-up a bundle of local restaurants where you can see and enjoy some…
City Life

Hounds of Hamilton

We need a big dose of dogs these days so HAMILTON CITY Magazine's new feature celebrates the city's canines. Send in your dogs (and cats)! Escape the relentless news cycle, doom scrolling and polarizing politics, and find joy and laughter in pets. Hounds of Hamilton…

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HAMILTON CITY Magazine’s mission is to tell the stories that celebrate the city’s past, present and future by featuring stunning photography, illustrations and world-class writing. It’s your city. It’s your magazine.


Arts + Culture

Sonic Unyon: Taking on the flip side

Long-time musician Wayne Petti has taken a role with Sonic Unyon that sees him managing artists through the new SUM Artist Management, while growing the label, and pitching in with the evolution of a musical empire. The juggernaut that is multi-faceted Hamilton-based independent music company Sonic Unyon…
Arts + Culture

A Ringside (Hamilton) seat

Large event space at the back of Architect Hair Design on James Street North is proving popular for weddings, parties and dances. If you’ve ventured down the colourful alley beside Architect Hair Design on James Street North, you won’t forget what you found.  It opens to a courtyard…
City Life

Rethinking Chedoke Creek

The future of a critical Hamilton waterway that is partially buried is being imagined in a community design lab. Water is foundational to Hamilton. We are a city on a harbour that has been the focus of inhabitants for generations. Whether it was for trading or industry, or…
Arts + Culture

Lifting women’s voices in music

Hamilton/Halton is the 11th chapter of Women in Music Canada, and will host local networking events, workshops, panels, artist showcases and meet-ups. Male-dominated industries can be isolating, intimidating, and at times hostile to women and genderqueer people navigating careers within them. The arts, often lauded as industries of…
Food + Drink

My heart belongs to Nani’s Gelato

Founded as a food truck in Toronto in 2022, you can now get the internationally inspired frozen flavours in Hamilton and Burlington as part of a franchising expansion across Canada. While hankerings for frozen treats persist all year, we are well into the season when those cravings peak.
Food + Drink

King James Vol. 1

James Street North is, without a doubt, the heart of downtown Hamilton. Its dining scene is constantly evolving but rooted in the success of some mainstays and the neighbourhood’s ethnic diversity. James North runs from King Street East to the bay, bringing you to lovely (and ongoing) upgrades…
Arts + Culture

Musical incubator staging a second season

National Centre for New Musicals at Theatre Aquarius has completed its first year and announced the next cohort of works to be mentored and supported. Hamilton’s incubator for Canadian musicals has one year under its belt and has announced its three new works it will support on their…
City Life

Julia Veenstra: Hitting the beach

The Hamilton painter will host the fifth edition of her Garden Party & Studio Tour on Sept. 6. Now a five-year tradition on Beach Boulevard, local painter and café owner Julia Veenstra will host her Garden Party & Studio Tour on Sept. 6.  The day combines her two…