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Celebrating all things Hamilton / Welcome Message
City Life

PRIDE: Kenadie, how do you shake off judgment?

Welcome to the first monthly column from Hamilton drag queen Kenadie St. James! Read on for the best bad advice you’ve ever had! Hamilton, your problems are officially about to get WORSE. 💋 Local drag legend Kenadie St. James is serving up catastrophically bad life advice in her…
Arts + Culture

Festival season: Summer on parade

Here is your hot 2026 summer festivals guide for Hamilton and Burlington. You’ll find everything from inaugural events to two local traditions that are turning 50 years old this year! Our summers may be short but fortunately for us, the list of local festivals is long. Spend warm-weather…
Arts + Culture

THE PLAYLIST

Born Ruffians – Beauty’s Pride For a band that once felt like it might combust from sheer nervous energy and mileage logged, Born Ruffians have aged in a surprisingly graceful, and still charmingly unpredictable way. Beauty’s Pride finds the long-running Toronto/Hamilton group loosening their grip on that early, jittery urgency…
Made in Hamilton

OPINION: Election 2026 is the time to build

The last municipal election saw just over 35 per cent of eligible Hamiltonians vote. We must do better this time because this city needs to deliver on its potential.  October 2026 will define Hamilton’s next chapter. We are entering a municipal election that will shape how our…
City Life

7 2SLGBTQIA+ leaders you should know

In honour of Pride in June, we asked inspiring local advocates and community leaders about their work, why marking Pride matters, what needs to change at the local level, and their greatest wish for the communities they serve. These are just seven Hamiltonians who champion 2SLGBTIA+ people locally.
Arts + Culture

Silverstein never stands still

Twenty-six years,13 albums, and a million records sold later, and the Burlington-born hardcore/punk band continues to defy the odds. Silverstein began making music during a fertile period in heavy guitar rock. The turn of the millennium saw guitar rock genres splinter into even more subgenres as bands borrowed…
Arts + Culture

PRIDE: Queer and crafting in Hamilton

QUARTZ: Queer Art Hang at the Art Gallery of Hamilton and Queer Craft Club at Hamilton Craft Studios offers an oulet for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community to gather and create. If you are queer and into crafting, you have two options to let your creative flag fly and…
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 May. Launched & opening soon Chubby Tiger (2016 Victoria Ave., Burlington) Early reviewers have described the cuisine at Chubby Tiger as reminiscent of food court Canadian Chinese fare, with…
Arts + Culture

Cadence Weapon wants you to stop scrolling and start listening

Rollie Pemberton, aka Cadence Weapon, is done with treating music as background filler. In his new book Ways of Listening, the Hamilton rapper explores the transition from record bins to algorithms and reimagines how we can reclaim a deep connection with music in the age of streaming. When…
Arts + Culture

For Spoons, ‘Old Emotions’ are new again

Burlington band that had a string of hits in the 1980s, is releasing a new album and taking on a new musical sound. By Jenna Yeomans and Stephen Metelsky  Nov. 1, 2025. The bottom of the 11th inning of the World Series at Toronto’s Rogers Centre. The Jays…
Arts + Culture

incite: Delivering on a mission

Since the incite Foundation for the Arts was formed in 2011, it has donated $11 million to local arts organizations. On its 15th anniversary, the incite Foundation for the Arts is reaffirming its mission to revolutionize support for the arts in the greater Hamilton community.  incite strives to…
Food + Drink

Delicious and Indigenous

There are a growing number of notable food options in Six Nations, along with a beloved Indigenous-owned diner in Hamilton. Six Nations & Beyond  Just south of the city, not far from the edges of Hamilton, is the community of Six Nations. With a whole variety of…
Arts + Culture

Hamilton’s music scene: What is and what could be

Music writer Dylan Hudecki asked Hamilton’s music insiders for their opinions about how to keep the local music scene thriving and reinventing itself. Think of it as a suggestion box to turn up the volume on Hamilton. Hamilton’s music scene continues to thrive as one of Canada’s most…
Food + Drink

DINING DISTRICTS: A Locke on food

This interesting west Hamilton street is ever-evolving, with newcomers joining long-time eateries to make for a true foodie destination. On the whole, my visits to Locke Street have all been linked to food. It must be said that I can think of over a dozen eateries that closed…
City Life

CITY VIEW: A Hamilton storyteller

Annette Hamm is about to retire after being part of the CHCH News team since 1986. We talked to her about her career and what Hamilton means to her. ANNETTE HAMM is retiring next month after a 40-year career at CHCH. She's spent the last 21 of those…

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

Sound on Film

Hamilton-based score composers Nathan Fleet and Mike Trebilcock talk about the business and the process of setting music to movies and TV. Music is often the beating heart of a film or TV show. Take the score away or change it, and no matter how excellent the writing…
Arts + Culture

Art, memorabilia exhibit celebrates city’s musical icons

“Love Hamilton: A Celebration of Hamilton Art & Music” is an ode to Teenage Head and late guitarist Gord Lewis, along with Tom Wilson, Daniel Lanois, Gary Spearin and John Coburn. Tom Beckett, owner of Locke Street gallery Beckett Fine Art, calls his current exhibition, “Love Hamilton: A…
City Life

Density is the answer to the housing crisis

We need to build more homes – of all kinds – in Hamilton. That means understanding that we can’t simultaneously hold fast on the urban boundary while fighting intensification in existing neighbourhoods. We are in a housing crisis, in Hamilton specifically and across Canadian cities more broadly. The…
City Life

LIFE IN THE CITY

PHOTOS BY BRENT PERNIAC, DONNA WAXMAN AND GARY GREEN Canadian singer-songwriter Jully Black was the headliner at It’s Your Festival, July 2.Lisa Mercanti-Ladd and Ian Ladd at the Imagine Summer Gala of the Rotary Club of Hamilton AM, Aug. 11. Proceeds went to Keaton’s House, a pediatric hospice…
Made in Hamilton

Grey Cup Festival: ‘You will be wowed’

Six days of events ahead of the CFL’s championship game in November, will showcase the best of Hamilton. When two teams line up for the 6 p.m. kickoff of the 110th Grey Cup at Tim Hortons Field on Nov. 19, it will mark the 12th time Hamilton has…
Arts + Culture

Crown & Press: A new art experience

Artist Julia Veenstra and her family have opened a gallery and café on Ottawa Street North that aims to elevate artists and make art accessible. Many great new business ventures were dreamed up during the pandemic. That’s the story of Crown & Press.
Arts + Culture

The hidden identity of artist Leonard Hutchinson

His Depression-themed, worker-centred art is considered an ‘irreplaceable’ historical record. Hutchinson understood what it meant to be marginalized. Leonard Hutchinson is best known for evocative 1930s Depression-themed and Japanese-style woodblock prints of working people and places like barns, mills, homes, and landscape in and around Hamilton.  In his…
Arts + Culture

Bringing Pollyanna to life

Theatre Aquarius’s holiday family show will be the world premiere of Pollyanna The Musical and HAMILTON CITY Magazine will show you just what it takes to get to opening night. It’s a rare work of art that produces a protagonist so iconic that she becomes part of the…