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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…

you are HAMILTON

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

A Fresh (Up) approach to R&B in Hamilton

Sonic Unyon’s showcases have expanded to include hip hop, soul, electronic and roots performers. The dream is to eventually blossom into a full-fledged summer festival. Hamilton has a longstanding reputation as a punk and metal city, with a hardcore scene that has been supported for decades by…
City Life

Embracing the water

The CN rail yard on the west harbour has to move in order to realize Hamilton’s full potential as a true waterfront city.  Hamilton is a city on water. The harbour has been a source of commerce and recreation for the entire life of the community, and…
Made in Hamilton

Sharing the LRT goldmine

Pilot project aims to provide an alternative future for Hamilton’s transit corridor, one that includes affordable housing alongside upscale high-rises. A land speculation bonanza is underway along Hamilton’s King and Main streets triggered chiefly by the largest infrastructure project in the city’s history, the $3.4-billion light rail transit…
Arts + Culture

Diana Panton is constant reinvention

Hamilton jazz vocalist celebrates 20 years of recording with soft winds and roses, her 11th full-length record, in which she tackles many contemporary favourites. Juno-winning Hamilton jazz vocalist Diana Panton has just celebrated a milestone 20th anniversary of becoming a recording artist in fitting style. She recently…
Arts + Culture

Emma Donoghue’s The Paris Express tracks fateful journey

Acclaimed writer will visit Hamilton to talk about her new work of historical fiction at a pre-festival gritLIT event at the Playhouse Cinema on April 9. Acclaimed author Emma Donoghue loves the time immediately after releasing a new book, when she tours to give readings and speak at…
Food + Drink

ON THE MENU: WHAT’S OPENED AND CLOSED ON THE LOCAL RESTAURANT SCENE

Here's a list of what has come, gone and changed in Hamilton and Burlington in March. Launched Aquanova Brewing Co. (67 Frid St., Hamilton) After building its brand at various local restaurants, Aquanova is now bringing its high-quality, uniquely crafted beers in a newly opened unique, pet-friendly space…
City Life

Looking to the past helps us eat local in the present

There are plenty of reasons to think about the food we eat and where it comes from – environmental, nutritional and now political. How our country’s Indigenous people and settlers fed themselves provides a blueprint for today. Almost 20 years ago, the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle was…
Arts + Culture

REVIEW: Fully Committed is a heaping plate of fun

Gavin Crawford delivers a captivating performance in a one-man play that beautifully satirizes the rich and the powerful desperate for a table at NYC’s hottest restaurant. Gavin Crawford’s hilarious performance in Fully Committed at Theatre Aquarius is nothing short of remarkable. I was exhausted for him as he…