“For many Thunder Bay residents, no summer is complete without making the pilgrimage to Birds Hill Provincial Park for the Winnipeg Folk Festival. This year, as the festival celebrates its 50th anniversary, the four-day event remains a cherished tradition.”

-Adrian Lysenko

This past weekend, the vibes were unmatched at the inaugural Afro Vibe Fest, a two-day festival celebrating Afro-centric culture, music, and arts in Thunder Bay with live stage performances, cultural demonstrations, kids’ activities, local food vendors, and more.

‘Tis the season for festivals, fun, and folk music, and Mt. Joy’s fourth LP, Hope We Have Fun, boasts 13 tracks that sound as good in headphones as they do on a festival stage.

Summer is here and it’s time to live, laugh, and litter outside.

“I think all of us as artists in general have more to share than just our tattoos,” says participating artist Renato Marino, who has been tattooing for 11 years. “When you go to a museum or you go to an art show, [people think] ‘Oh, these are artists,’ but then they look at us and they’re like, ‘These are degenerates who draw things,’” Marino laughs.

What else can one say but ooh la la!

Before a single frame of The Moth was shot, co-directors Michelle Derosier and Zoe Gordon were years deep in discussions about the impacts of regional development and ecological change on the land. 

It’s been seven years since Propagandhi’s last full length and things (gestures to genocidal conflicts, the environment, surveillance technology, billionaires, on and on) have continued on their downward spiral.

The Thunder Bay Art Gallery will host the debut exhibition of local photographer and filmmaker Laura-Lynn Petrick, Hometown Anthems, running until June 8. The show will focus on highlighting Petrick’s experiences growing up in the rural outskirts of Thunder Bay, and provide a behind-the-scenes look at her family traditions and country life, blending her Finnish roots with the unique aspects of life in Northwestern Ontario.

A new short film has gained international attention after its premiere in New Zealand. My Friend Saabe, directed by Morningstar Derosier and Victoria Anderson-Gardner, was filmed in Migisi Sahgaigan (Eagle Lake First Nation), Derosier says, and screened in late March at the Māoriland Film Festival.

Add a splash of guitar, the essence of Circle Jerks, and a whole lot of angst, bring it to a roaring boil, and voila, there you have it: scalding punk anger—or in other words, RHOADS’s first official release, Idiopathic.

Closing out Magnus Theatre’s 2024–2025 season is Frances Koncan’s Women of the Fur Trade, a historical satire inspired by David Lynch, Hamilton, and the fur trade.

“It was a good opportunity to push my art practice in a new direction,” says textile artist Mary Jane MacDonald of her upcoming debut solo exhibition Slow Stitch: The Embroidered Landscape. “I wanted to experiment with embroidery and textiles and show other ways of doing it.”

Take a moment and imagine this: a horrifying world where the birds cease to sing, and artists refuse to create new works for lack of a muse. That’s the dimension where hot dogs were never invented. Thankfully for all of us, Station 22, located inside Dawson Trail Brewery, is making all of our dreams come true with their Chicago Hot Dog.

Sometimes, a good book allows us to escape the real world for just a minute. A musical does, too. But what happens when these two things collide? All the Daze’s latest musical Between the Lines will answer just that.