Local Spotlight

🍷 Free Tastings and Great Stories: Ben Walmsley at the Midland LCBO Will Change How You Think About What's in Your Glass

Kingston & Area Local News

🏥 $1.25M Gift: Stephen Sorensen Upgrades Emergency Care at Kingston's KHSC
🌿 At Kingston's Climate Summit, the Real Action Was Out in the Gardens

Community Champions

🏆 Grade 9 Kingston Student Liam Desre Wins Best Project at the Canada-Wide Science Fair
🩺 “Once a Nurse, Always a Nurse”: KGH Alumni Mark 130 Years
⚽ Holy Cross Junior Girls Soccer Takes KASSAA Gold for the First Time Since 2018

New Events In and Around Kingston

🧠 Brain Tumour Walk + Grens Tackle Tumours | Newlands Pavilion | June 21
🎨 Métis Artist Meet-and-Greet: Dr. Carleigh Milburn | Hotel Wolfe Island | June 13
🍺 YGK Craft Beer Fest | Fort Henry | June 13
🏕️ South Frontenac Lakes and Trails Festival | McMullen Park Beach, Verona | June 20
⚔️ Ironwood Fantasy Fair | The Spire, Kingston | August 15

Events Calendar

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

👉 Please Share Your Feedback

🎨📸 Are you a local artist or photographer? We'd love to feature your work!

If you've captured Kingston and the surrounding area through your lens or your brushstrokes, we want to hear from you. We're especially looking for seasonal work that shows off the beauty and scenes of our corner of Ontario.

Drop a line at [email protected] with a sample of what you think would be a great fit and a bit about yourself (note: the crops will somehow need to work well at both 1200×630 and 9:16)

Whether you're a curious newcomer to wine and spirits or someone who already knows their Pinot from their Primitivo, there's something quietly amazing happening at the Midland Avenue LCBO every Friday and Saturday. The team pours premium spirits on Fridays, wines on Saturdays, at no charge, and the bottles on the counter are often the kind that run $80, $100, even $200.

But the tasting is only part of it. You might also walk away knowing why your gin and tonic traces back to a British army field camp, or how the founding dates on Italian liqueur bottles map to political upheaval, or what makes two wines from the same grape taste completely different. Ben Walmsley has a gift for making all of it make sense, and he seems genuinely delighted to share it with anyone who wanders over.

Read the full story: History in a Glass: Meet Ben Walmsley at Kingston’s Midland LCBO

Kingston resident Stephen Sorensen has donated $1.25 million to Kingston Health Sciences Centre to upgrade emergency diagnostic and imaging equipment: new X-ray systems, a mobile bedside imager, and airway and cardiac tools. What sets this gift apart is the approach. Sorensen worked directly with frontline staff to identify the highest-impact needs before the donation was finalized. KHSC serves more than 650,000 people across southeastern Ontario, and he has a track record of directing his philanthropy exactly where frontline teams say it will land hardest.

Read the full story at: Kingstonist

Day two of Kingston's second annual Climate Summit took about 20 participants on a biodiversity bus tour led by Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI Canada), with two stops that showed what local climate action actually looks like on the ground. The Highway 15 Indigenous Food Sovereignty Gardens, stewarded by the All Our Relations Land Trust and protected under Canada's 30x30 commitment, runs on solar power, rainwater collection, and a little forest 80% planted by children. The second stop, Lakeside Community Garden, featured seed saving, a Miyawaki-method little forest, and tropical vegetables grown by the Kingston Malayali Association. All of it feeds into Kingston's upcoming Biodiverse Action Plan, and Little Forests Kingston co-founder Joyce Hostyn was there to speak on social and cultural resilience.

Read the full story at: The Kingston Whig-Standard

Liam Desre, a Grade 9 student at Kingston Secondary School, took home the Best Project Award at Youth Science Canada's Canada-Wide Science Fair in Edmonton, one of only two top honours at the national competition. His project proposes an alternative framework to dark energy for explaining the expansion of the universe. He also won a Platinum Excellence Award and a $750 Aerospace Challenge prize, and he'll represent Canada at the EU Contest for Young Scientists in Kiel, Germany this September. Four other Kingston students collectively earned 10 national honours at the same fair.

Read the full story at: Kingstonist

Nearly 120 former nurses gathered on June 6 at the Holiday Inn Waterfront in Kingston to celebrate the 130th anniversary of the KGH Nurses' Alumnae Association. The association was founded in 1896, a decade after Kingston Health Sciences Centre (then KGH) opened its nursing school in 1886, which eventually graduated more than 3,000 nurses before training moved to colleges and universities in 1974. It is now one of the last remaining hospital school alumni associations in Canada, and this year drew attendees from across the country, the US, and one who flew in from Australia. Eldest member Winn (Keyes) McKnight, 102 years old and class of '46, put it simply: “Nursing, you carry it with you. It's who we are.”

Read the full story at: The Kingston Whig-Standard

The Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School junior girls soccer team won KASSAA gold on May 19 at Richardson Stadium, beating Kingston Secondary School 2-0 for their first championship since 2018. About half the team was in Grade 9 this year. The first goal came from a free kick by striker Chloe Trotter; the second from a cross by Keira Murphy finished by Emily Campbell. Head coach Mariella Karremans celebrated without restraint: “This team will be a hard one to match in their relentless determination, unmatched teamwork and absolute dominance on the field.” The Grade 10s move up to Senior division next year.

Read the full story at: Kingstonist

The Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada is bringing its annual Brain Tumour Walk to Kingston on Sunday, June 21 at Newlands Pavilion. The 2.5 km route is fully wheelchair and stroller accessible, pet-friendly (on leash), and parking on Sundays is free across street lots, Queen's University surface lots, and city surface lots. The Kingston Grenadiers Football Club is hosting their concurrent Grens Tackle Tumours awareness event the same day. And there's a special guest: Jackson Giddy, a 10-year-old Kingston SuperKid and brain tumour survivor, attended a Grenadiers practice on June 11 and will be at the walk on June 21. Register at the Kingston Brain Tumour Walk registration page.

Métis artist and Métis Nation of Ontario member Dr. Carleigh Milburn is holding a free meet-and-greet this Saturday, June 13 at Hotel Wolfe Island (a free ferry ride from Kingston's waterfront at 253 Ontario St). Her installation, created in collaboration with LodgePole Arts Alliance (an Indigenous-led arts organization in Ontario), features six original works (sculpture, beadwork, painting, and interactive pieces) inspired by time spent observing the island's heron and landscape. Dr. Milburn begins a Rebanks Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Royal Ontario Museum in September. The installation runs until July. Read more at Kingstonist.

Fort Henry opens its gates Saturday, June 13 for the YGK Craft Beer Fest: 20+ craft breweries, eight live acts on two outdoor stages, food trucks, an artisan market, and lawn games. Entry is all ages (19+ to drink), dogs are welcome, and parking plus shuttle service are free. Fort Henry is about as good a backdrop as it gets for an afternoon like this. Grab tickets at the YGK Craft Beer Fest event page.

The Township of South Frontenac is hosting its free Lakes and Trails Festival on Saturday, June 20 at McMullen Park Beach in Verona. Admission is free (donations welcome), and the day includes guided paddles on Verona Lake, a bird walk, Little Ray's Reptiles, a Kid Ninja obstacle course, supervised swimming, and K&P Trail access. It also falls on Father's Day weekend, making it a natural excuse to get the family outside. Full details at the Lakes and Trails Festival page.

A brand-new event is coming to Kingston this August: the first-ever Ironwood Fantasy Fair, a full-day fantasy and imagination festival from Ironwood Sword School at The Spire on Saturday, August 15. The daytime all-ages fair (around 1,000 guests expected) features swordfighting demos, wandering fae, performers, workshops, vendors, artisans, and musicians, with a separate 19+ evening soiree for about 100 guests. Tickets aren't on sale yet, but sign up for updates at ironwoodfairs.ca. Ironwood is also still accepting applications from vendors, performers, artists, musicians, and workshop hosts.

🌍 9th Annual Diversity Dinner  |  BGC South East  |  June 13

🏳️‍🌈 Kingston Pride Parade  |  Memorial Centre to Confederation Park  |  June 13

🎨 Dr. Carleigh Milburn Meet-and-Greet  |  Hotel Wolfe Island, Wolfe Island  |  June 13

🍺 YGK Craft Beer Fest  |  Fort Henry, Kingston  |  June 13

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

🇵🇭 Mabuhay Festival Kingston  |  Confederation Park, 209 Ontario St  |  June 14

🛠️ Makers at the Mill Father’s Day  |  Babcock Mill, Odessa  |  June 14

⛳ Sandra Davison Memorial Golf Classic  |  Loyalist Golf & Country Club, Bath  |  June 19

🚤 Rideau Canal Free Lockage Begins  |  Rideau Canal  |  June 19 (through Sept 7)

🎸 Skeleton Park Arts Festival  |  McBurney Park  |  June 19–21

🏞️ South Frontenac Lakes & Trails Festival  |  McMullen Park Beach, Verona  |  June 20

🕊️ Walter Fenlon Public Celebration of Life  |  Grand Theatre  |  June 20

🛍️ Princess Street Promenade  |  Princess Street, Downtown Kingston  |  June 20

🧠 Kingston Brain Tumour Walk  |  Newlands Pavilion, Kingston  |  June 21

🎬 Movies in the Square (Season 19)  |  Springer Market Square  |  June 25–Aug 27

🎨 ArtFest Kingston  |  City Park  |  June 26–28

⚽ FIFA World Cup Fan Zone  |  Springer Market Square, Kingston  |  June 27

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

🐾 Puppies + Jazz  |  The Caesar Company  |  June 28

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

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

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

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

Ongoing Events

🎭 Very Heaven  |  Domino Theatre, 52 Church St  |  through June 20

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

Ongoing Markets

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

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

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

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

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

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