Local Spotlight

🎸 The Music Festival That Almost Didn't Happen Is Back, Bigger Than Ever: Line Spike Frontenac 2026

Kingston & Area Local News

🚗 Kingston Gets a $9M Automotive Tech Hub Called Fuse
🏙️ Kingston Council Unanimously Backs Exploring an Indoor Sports Dome

Community Champions

🥇 Limestone Students Bring Home Gold, Silver, and Bronze from Skills Ontario
🎷 Kingston Musician Opens a Pay-Less Grocery Store to Help His Community
📶 Kingston Charity Builds an Off-Grid Radio Network to Connect Its Unhoused Community

New Events In and Around Kingston

⛴️ S.S. Keewatin Is Open for Season Three | Great Lakes Museum | May 16 - Nov 30
🏳️‍🌈 Greater Napanee Pride | Conservation Park, Napanee | May 30
🌍 Ten Thousand Villages Fair Trade Sale | The Spire, Lower Hall | May 31
☀️ Sydenham Street Commons Grand Opening | Sydenham St at Princess | May 31
🧿 Katarokwi Indigenous Market Returns to Confederation Park | May 31 - Sept 27

Events Calendar

It’s gotten too long to include here in the summary! Click Events Calendar to see our list for the next few days.

👉 Please Share Your Feedback

A two-day, all-Canadian music festival is taking over a natural amphitheatre in Harrowsmith on June 27 and 28, and the lineup is genuinely something to talk about. Eighteen acts spanning hip hop, blues, folk, country and rock, headlined by Raine Maida and Chantal Kreviazuk on their I'm Going to Break Your Heart Tour. Kids under 12 get in free, there's a Drag Your Own Cooler option, and presale pricing ends June 5th.

Behind it all is Jeremy Campbell, a Kingston-area film and TV producer who launched Line Spike in 2025 against all odds, including facing a catastrophe just two days before opening. He ran the show anyway. The full story of who he is, what he is building, and why it matters to our community is one worth reading.

Read the full Kingston Spotlight feature on Line Spike Frontenac 2026 here.

Kingston just landed a $9M automotive and clean-tech hub. Fuse (Kingston and Eastern Ontario Regional Technology Development Site) launched last Friday at the Modern Niagara building off Princess St. It is Ontario's only chemtech-focused RTDS, backed by the Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network, with KEDCO leading a roster of local industry partners. The mandate: help businesses develop and commercialize advanced materials for automotive and smart mobility. What that means for Kingston's economy is worth a read.

Read the full story at: Kingston Economic Development Corporation

Kingston council voted unanimously to explore building an inflatable indoor sports dome at John Machin Soccer Park in the east end. The park already has grade beams in the ground from 2013, installed specifically for a future air-supported structure, so the bones are there. With a nearby private dome proposal stalled over trade-war construction costs and the Kingston 1000 Islands Sportsplex offline since 2022, the timing makes sense. Staff will assess feasibility and report back in October.

Read the full story at: Kingstonist

Limestone District School Board students came home from the 2026 Skills Ontario provincial competition with gold, silver, and bronze. Jacob O'Reilly (Sydenham High) took gold in Computer Aided Manufacturing, a North Addington team won silver in Home Team Building, and Amanda Neddow (Napanee District Secondary) took bronze in Auto Painting. Students competed across 19 secondary and 4 elementary categories, with some also earning monetary awards and a path to Skills Canada Nationals.

Read the full story at: Kingston Daily

After nearly 50 years making music in Kingston, Trevor Walsh has a new gig: discount grocery store owner. He left his day job to open Trevor's One Stop Shoppe at 338 Princess St., stocking discounted groceries sourced from warehouse overstock and discontinued lots. Near-expiry items go to Martha's Table. With food insecurity in Kingston real and growing, this is exactly the kind of community-minded move worth celebrating.

Read the full story at: Kingston Whig-Standard

The world's last surviving Edwardian passenger steamship is open for Season Three at the Great Lakes Museum (55 Ontario St.). The S.S. Keewatin, built in 1907 (older than the Titanic), offers four guided tour experiences from a 45-minute essentials tour up to a two-hour deluxe walk through the original dining room, ballroom, cabins, and brass engine room. Tours book up. Grab tickets in advance at greatlakesmuseum.ca.

Greater Napanee Pride takes over Conservation Park this Saturday with a full day of celebration: a 2 km walk, 50+ vendors, live music from Grace Marr and Chris Chord, face painting, pony rides, and a foam party. A legion-hosted BBQ raises funds for the legion. Allies are explicitly and warmly welcome. Full schedule at greaternapaneepride.com.

Ten Thousand Villages pops up in the Lower Hall at The Spire (82 Sydenham St.) this Sunday, May 31, noon to 3 pm. Fair-trade handcrafted jewelry, home decor, textiles, and gifts from artisans around the world, priced so the money goes to the makers. A good Sunday excuse to be downtown, especially with Sydenham Street Commons opening the same day. Details at The Spire Kingston.

The car-free summer gathering spot at Sydenham and Princess is back. Sydenham Street Commons opens for 2026 this Saturday, May 31 with a coffee party and DJ Reid. New this year: a Summer Mini Market Series on select Saturdays, Muskoka chairs painted by local artists, and a rainbow selfie station. Screen-Free Saturdays run all summer. Opening day tickets are $15. Details at Downtown Kingston.

The Katarokwi Indigenous Market is back at Confederation Park after a one-year break, running the last Sunday of every month through September 27. Around 30 Indigenous vendors with beadwork, jewelry, pottery, leather goods, and moccasins, plus food from Laala G's Meechum, live music, and face painting. The City of Kingston also coordinates a Sacred Fire on the same days, honouring missing Indigenous children and residential school survivors. Free to attend, everyone welcome. Details at City of Kingston.

🎨The Clearing: Art  |  Rideau Heights Community Centre, 85 Maccauley St  |  May 20–31

🎭Finnegans Wake: A Dream Play  |  Kingston Grand Baby Grand  |  May 21–June 7

🎵Kate Voegele & Tyler Hilton: One Tree Hill Tour  |  The Spire, 82 Sydenham St  |  May 25

🏆Kiwanis Amateur Sports Awards  |  Memorial Hall, City Hall  |  May 28

🎸Spring Reverb Music Festival  |  Various Kingston venues  |  May 28–31

🌸Almost Home Charity Gala  |  Our Lady of Fatima Parish Hall  |  May 29

💙Kingston Defeat Depression Walk  |  Kingston Memorial Centre, 303 York St  |  May 30

⛳Bayridge SS Teachers Golf Tournament  |  Amherstview Golf Club  |  May 30 (noon)

🐢Turtle Awareness Day  |  Lake Ontario Park, 920 King St W  |  May 30

🏃Kilometres for Kids Run/Walk/Roll  |  Kingston Secondary School  |  May 30

🎤Open Voices Carnival of Song  |  Cooke's Portsmouth United Church  |  May 30

❤️Red Shirt Day Walk for Inclusion  |  James R. Henderson School  |  May 31 (10 am)

🛍️Ten Thousand Villages Fair Trade Sale  |  The Spire, Lower Hall, 82 Sydenham St  |  May 31

📚Isabel Turner Branch Grand Re-Opening  |  Isabel Turner Branch  |  June 6

🌻Lviv, Ukraine Folklore Festival  |  Regiopolis Notre Dame High School  |  June 13–14

🎬Movies in the Square (Season 19) (8 films, Thursdays at dusk)  |  Springer Market Square  |  June 25–Aug 27

🎸 Line Spike Frontenac 2026 Music Festival  |  Natural amphitheatre, Harrowsmith  |  June 27–28

🐾Puppies + Jazz  |  The Caesar Company  |  June 28

🎨Women's Art Festival  |  City Park, Kingston  |  August 8, 2026

🤘Forever Hip Night 1: Choir! Choir! Choir! + Miss Emily, The Abrams  |  Springer Market Square  |  Aug 20

BTW, if you don’t want to receive this anymore, please help all the subscribers by just using the Unsubscribe link at the bottom instead of marking this as SPAM… remember, you did subscribe ;-)

All feedback and suggestions are appreciated!

Too long? Too short? About right?
What would you like to see more of, and less of?

Email Les at [email protected]

Do you have a favourite local business, community champion or organization that deserves a moment in the spotlight? (You can nominate yourself too!)

Help us celebrate the people who make the Kingston area shine. Tell us who they are and why they’re great—or give us the "inside scoop" on your own mission or business!

I find way more "local gold" every week than I can actually fit in this newsletter without turning it into a novel! If you want the daily updates, extra tips, and the cool stuff that didn't make the cut, come hang out with us on our social channels.

👉 Follow us at:
Facebook @KingstonSpotlight
Instagram @KingstonSpotlight
YouTube @TheKingstonSpotlight
TikTok @kingstonspotlight
X @kingstonspotlig

Do your friends and circle a solid and forward this their way. You’ll be the hero of the group chat, and they’ll have a good reason to put down the remote.

👉 Spread the love: https://kingstonspotlight.ca