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🌞🌿 On the Cover: Patio Season Is Here

Local Spotlight

🔎 Coming up soon: the amazing work by Community Living Kingston District and Ryandale Transitional Housing

Kingston & Area Local News

🩺 Kingston Delivers the Fastest Emergency Stroke Care in Ontario
🌱 Kingston’s Performance Plants Wins Federal Backing for Climate-Resilient Canola
🤝 The City Opens $350K in Funding for Community Safety Projects

Community Champions

🎶 Compton Park’s Music Festival Wins the Awesome Kingston June Microgrant
🛶 First Women Join the Yakathon’s 200km Paddle for Men’s Mental Health
🎩 Gord Downie’s Iconic Hat Is Up for Auction for the Downie-Wenjack Fund

New Events In and Around Kingston

🎤 Nicci Rea of Sunshine at Confederation Park | Confederation Park | July 11
🔥 S’more Stories | Glendower Park, South Frontenac | July 18
🏊 Loyalist Township’s New Barr Homes Aquatic Centre Opens | Amherstview | July 20
🎡 Delta Fair 2026 | Delta Fairgrounds | July 23 to 26

Events Calendar

It’s gotten too long to include here in the summary! Click Events Calendar to see so many great events!

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🎶 Speaking of staying in the loop, say hello to our friends at Kingston Live. If you love live music, they are well worth it: a free, refreshingly thorough roundup of local shows and events, put together entirely by volunteers who clearly love this city's music scene. We are big fans of what they do, so if you want Kingston's gigs and happenings landing right in your inbox, hit Sign Up Here and stay in the loop.

Amadeus Cafe’s secluded garden patio, a personal favorite, made for slow summer afternoons.

Patio season has officially landed. If you like the calm kind (shade, a cold drink, and no Harley’s spoiling the mood), we rounded up the area’s quietest patios a while back at Best Eats Ontario East and the list still holds up. Pull up a chair.

When a stroke hits, every minute counts, and Kingston is setting the pace for the whole province. The Regional Stroke Centre at Kingston Health Sciences Centre has Ontario’s fastest treatment time, with a median door-to-needle of just 18 minutes against a provincial average closer to 40. The secret is an on-call system that has neurologists ready in the ER before the patient even arrives. Dr. Al Jin also shares the FAST warning signs worth memorizing: Face, Arms, Speech, and Time to call 911. Knowing them could save a life.

Read the full story at: The Kingston Whig-Standard

A Kingston biotech firm is helping tomorrow’s crops handle a hotter, drier world. Performance Plants, based on Gardiners Road since 1995, is gene-editing canola to shrug off drought and heat while tucking more carbon into the soil. President and CTO Dr. Jiangxin Wan says the work simply fine-tunes the plant’s own genes rather than adding anything foreign. It is one of nine startups chosen for HARVEST, a new agri-tech accelerator run by Ontario Genomics with federal funding and investments of up to $750,000. Partner DL Seeds is along for the ride.

Read the full story at: The Kingston Whig-Standard

Here is a chance for local organizations with big ideas to get them funded. The City of Kingston is inviting community groups to apply for up to $350,000 in one-time funding for community-led pilot projects. The goal is to reduce public harm, close service gaps tied to homelessness, and improve well-being across the city. Applications are open now, so if your group has a practical, community-minded plan, this is your moment. It is a welcome investment in the people already doing good work on the ground.

Read the full story at: City of Kingston

Six neighbourhood moms turned a backyard idea into a beloved summer tradition, and now it has a little more wind in its sails. The volunteer-run Music Festival in Compton Park, started in 2023 by a group of Sunnyside parents led by Larissa Koniuk, has won the $1,000 June microgrant from Awesome Kingston. The money goes toward paying the musicians fairly, which is exactly the kind of thing that keeps a grassroots festival going. Mark your calendar: the festival itself returns to the park on Sunday, August 23.

Read the full story at: Kingstonist

Keisha Halladay and Bella Meban De Groot, making history as the first two women in the Yakathon, ready for the 200-kilometre paddle from Kingston to Ottawa. Photo by Bill Hall / The Kingston Whig-Standard

Talk about a labour of love. For the 11th year, the Yakathon sent a fleet of paddlers on a gruelling 200 kilometre journey from Kingston to Ottawa, with 28 kayakers spending more than 50 hours on the water after setting off on Sunday, July 5. They paddle to raise money and break the silence around men’s mental health in support of the Canadian Mental Health Association. This year marked a first, as women joined the trek, with newcomers Keisha Halladay and Bella Meban De Groot taking part. Founder Mike Worsley says about half of this year’s crew were first-timers.

Read the full story at: The Kingston Whig-Standard

Images from Lilliput Hats's Facebook post

Here is a piece of Canadian music history you can actually bid on. A replica of the purple hat Gord Downie wore on the Tragically Hip’s final tour in 2016, handmade by Toronto designer Karyn Ruiz of Lilliput Hats, is up for auction with every dollar going to the Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack Fund. Bidding sat at $2,050 as of Monday and closes on Friday, August 21.

Read the full story at: Kingston Daily

Bring the little ones downtown for a morning of songs and silliness. Kingston family musician Nicci Rea of Sunshine plays Confederation Park on Saturday, July 11. She makes cheerful bilingual folk-pop in English and French, performing alongside her puppet pals Remi Rat and Paisley Panda, so expect plenty of giggles between the tunes. It is a free, easygoing way to spend a summer Saturday by the water, and if the kids love it, you can catch her again later this month at S’more Stories in Sydenham.

Here is a free summer evening the whole family will remember. Township of South Frontenac hosts S’more Stories at Glendower Park near Sydenham on Saturday, July 18, bringing cottagers and locals together for storytelling, campfires, face painting, and free roast-your-own s’mores. The lineup includes a puppet show from the Kingston Frontenac Public Library, tales from Ruthy’s Reading Room, day-camp campfire stories, and campfire songs from Nicci Rea of Sunshine. It runs rain or shine with free parking, so just show up and settle in.

Make a splash a little west of the city. Loyalist Township opens its brand-new Barr Homes Aquatic Centre at the W.J. Henderson Community Centre in Amherstview on Monday, July 20. Inside you will find an eight-lane, 25-metre lap pool for serious swimmers plus a warm-water leisure pool for the kids and anyone who prefers to wade. Swim-lesson registration is already underway, having opened July 6 for Loyalist Township and City of Kingston residents and July 9 for everyone else.

Read the full story at: Kingston Daily

Road-trip time. About 45 minutes north of Kingston in the village of Delta, the Delta Fair returns for its 196th year from Thursday, July 23 to Sunday, July 26. One of Ontario’s oldest fairs, running all the way back to 1830, it packs in agricultural competitions, exhibits, live entertainment, and a full midway. It is a proper old-fashioned country fair, the kind of place where the butter tarts are homemade and the Ferris wheel view is worth the drive. Full lineup and schedule at deltafair.com.

🤙 Kingston Buskers Rendezvous  |  Springer Market Square & downtown  |  July 9–12

🧸 Teddy Bear Hospital  |  KFPL Calvin Park Branch  |  July 10

🍶 In the Key of Blue (Miss Emily)  |  Isabel Bader Centre  |  July 10–12

🎤 Nicci Rea of Sunshine  |  Confederation Park, downtown Kingston  |  July 11

🌅 A Summer Evening in the Islands  |  Rockport Barn, 28 Old River Rd, Rockport  |  July 16

🎊 Napanee Connect Block Party  |  Market Square, Greater Napanee  |  July 17

🎸 Rock for Ryandale  |  The Spire, 82 Sydenham St  |  July 18

🥩 Schnitzel Fundraiser Dinner  |  Golden Links Hall, Harrowsmith  |  July 18

🦋 Remembering by the River  |  Macpherson House, Napanee  |  July 18

🔥 S’more Stories  |  Glendower Park, South Frontenac  |  July 18

🚒 Pull Together for Epilepsy Fire Truck Pull  |  Confederation Park, downtown Kingston  |  July 19

🏊 Loyalist Township Barr Homes Aquatic Centre Opening  |  W.J. Henderson Community Centre, Amherstview  |  July 20

🎡 Delta Fair 2026  |  Delta Fairgrounds, Delta  |  July 23–26

🎨 Kingston Craft & Collectable Show  |  The Kingston Shrine Club, 3260 Princess St  |  July 25

🌶️ Hobo Steve’s Hot Sauce Charity for Almost Home  |  Mike’s Pizza and More, 4423 William St, Sydenham  |  July 26

🛍️ Princess Street Promenade  |  Princess Street, Downtown Kingston  |  August 1

💥 Rad Kids Comic and Art Con  |  Nexus, Kingston  |  August 1

🐑 Kingston Sheep Dog Trials Festival  |  Grass Creek Park  |  August 7–9

🖼️ Women’s Art Festival  |  City Park  |  August 8

🐐 LIVESTOCK Music & Craft Festival  |  Second Chance Ranch, Odessa  |  August 8

🛣 Rideau Canal Lock & Paddle  |  Rideau Canal  |  August 15

⚔️ Ironwood Fantasy Fair  |  The Spire, Kingston  |  August 15

🎸 Forever Hip  |  Springer Market Square  |  August 20–22

🍶 Music Festival in Compton Park  |  Compton Park  |  August 23

🚗 RoadTrip Music Festival  |  Princess Street & Springer Market Square  |  September 12

Ongoing Events

🔬 Exploration Days  |  Babcock Mill (Odessa) & Bath Museum  |  Thursdays & Fridays, to Aug 21

🎨 Mending Ways Juried Exhibition  |  Cultivate Art Commons, Tett Centre  |  to July 18

🚤 Rideau Canal Free Lockage  |  Rideau Canal  |  Season open (through Sept 7)

🚢 S.S. Keewatin Tours  |  Great Lakes Museum  |  Season open

🐟 Aquaculture: Farming the Waters  |  Great Lakes Museum  |  to October 18

Ongoing Markets

🥕 Kingston Public Market  |  Springer Market Square, downtown  |  Tuesdays, Thursdays & Saturdays

🥬 Memorial Centre Farmers’ Market  |  303 York St  |  Sundays

🪪 Katarokwi Indigenous Market  |  Springer Market Square  |  Monthly Sundays (June–Sept)

🛠️ Makers at the Mill  |  Babcock Mill, Odessa  |  Sundays (through Oct 18)

🏊 Gananoque Farmers’ Market  |  Town Hall Square, 30 King St E  |  Thursdays

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