
The XCM Canadian Championships took over Kinsmen Park once again this past weekend for back to back days of cross country marathon madness thanks to hosts Blacksheep Mountain Bike Club.
The XTERRA Sleeping Giant race showcases the stunning outdoor adventure opportunities in Thunder Bay and its surrounding areas. Situated along the north shore of Lake Superior, Thunder Bay features breathtaking boreal forests, crystal-clear waters, and dramatic cliffs, making it an outdoor sports paradise.
Since that first issue, The Walleye has published nearly 200 issues shining a light on all the remarkable people who make Thunder Bay a special place to live. In honour of this milestone anniversary, we’re turning the spotlight on 15 longtime contributors whose voices, passion, and creativity have played an integral role in shaping the magazine.
Close your eyes a moment and visualize a scenario: you’re driving back from a pumpkin picking trip, and you decide you absolutely need a breakfast delight. Then you see a true miracle on Highway 61 in the form of Cottage Time Public House, with their all-day breakfast and the subject of this month’s Off the Menu—the breakfast poutine.
“We are an authentic option for Mexican food,” says Rodrigo’s dad, Rodrigo Cosio Sr. “Whatever you eat with us is what you would be getting if you were sitting in my house having dinner, [and] absolutely everything we make is from scratch.”
From Senegal to Morocco and now all the way to Canada, AfroGourmets, a newly launched culinary experience provider, has recently set roots in Thunder Bay. Siblings and co-founders Awa and Ibrahima Diop, who were originally from Senegal but lived in Morocco for 22 years, settled in Thunder Bay earlier this year, bringing with them a world of flavours and culture along with a passion to share it with the community.
“Photography is a way for me to find those little pieces of joy and vibrancy in the natural world,” says Thunder Bay photographer Sarah Jensen. “I was a kid that spent a tonne of time outside, just looking at every little bug and leaf and flower.”
Artists Nicole Sutherland, Anne Winkworth, and Sue Lewis debut their third art show this month at Co.Lab Gallery. The trio share a love of painting, a background in teaching, and a love for working with colour.
“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.
June is Brain Injury Awareness Month, and in an effort to spark conversations around living with these conditions, the Brain Injury Association of Thunder Bay and Area (BIATBA) is participating in an international art therapy campaign, Unmasking Brain Injury, which is on display in the Thunder Bay Art Gallery’s community room until June 20.
Festival-goers in Thunder Bay had the time of their lives at the sixth Wake the Giant music and cultural festival this past weekend. Headlined by the Black Eyed Peas, this year’s festival marked the first-ever Indigenous headliner in addition to its first-ever ticket sell-out as 8,500 people filled Marina Park to participate in this special celebration of diversity, inclusivity, and culture.
It's hard to believe this is already Wake the Giant’s sixth annual edition, but what’s even more mindblowing is the lineup that’s in store for this September 6: Black Eyed Peas, Prozzäk, Neon Dreams, and Crystal Shawanda are just a few of the acts hitting the stage.
If it smells like teen spirit, looks like a party, and oinks like a pig, then it might just be the Tumblestone Music & Art Festival.
When Luke Warm and the Cold Ones were set to release their new self-titled album, they wanted a party, a celebration for all they’d accomplished. They wanted all their friends there—but they also wanted their families present, including young kids. The solution was hosting two shows on the same night, with an earlier slot for earlier bedtimes.
This year’s lineup features a variety of genres such as drama, comedy, documentary, horror, and thriller, with an emphasis on filmmakers from the region. “Our goal is to highlight local films and the local film industry, and we’ve been accomplishing that,” says Harpelle.
Described as Fargo meets Trailer Park Boys, this dark comedy follows Jason/Tumbleweed (Ben Albert), who dreams of becoming a famous rapper. But, he needs money to get to Sudbury to record his album. With the help of his girlfriend Tiffany (Shaundra Benincasa), they come up with a scheme to blackmail his estranged dad James (Greg Bishop) into giving them the money.
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 the most colourful time of year. Pride season has arrived and when it comes to the TBay Drag crew, we’re going full force. Here’s a list of events where you can find some of your favourite queens, kings, and drag performers throughout June.
While Tyler Childers’s past albums each tend to stick to one specific feel, Snipe Hunter is energetic and unexpected in both sound and lyric.
‘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.
Many of you may know Lights from her 2000s emo pop era; now, while we all may be ready to leave the extreme side bangs behind (if you know, you know), Lights’s new album A6 shows that she is ready to enter a new musical chapter.
My Morning Jacket have come a long way since their debut album, The Tennessee Fire, which was partly recorded in an improvised studio above vocalist/guitarist Jim James’s cousin’s garage. For the Kentucky-bred rock band’s milestone tenth release, they enlisted Grammy Award-winning producer Brendan O’Brien (known for working with Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam).
It's a curtain call for the democracy Canadians built after the world wars. Politics is evolving from an arena where powerbrokers create consensus from disparate viewpoints into a zero-sum game where stakeholders choose loyalties, the victor divides the spoils, and the losers are annihilated. Our partisan choices are either a technocratic centre-right that thinks it knows better or a rules-weary right wing that feigns no moral pretense.
I was ready for the unexpected on my first day as an outreach worker at Elevate NWO. Elevate is a harm reduction organization responding to treatment and prevention of HIV and Hepatitis C in Thunder Bay and the wider region, but also finds itself responding to other emerging issues. In Thunder Bay, that often means advocating for our unhoused neighbours in the fight for housing, not tents.
All this said, I was nevertheless surprised when all the talk of my first day was about birds!
We experience, create, and appreciate art and making in our own ways. There’s no insider secret code to “getting” public art. Even if you think you don’t know anything about art, even if you’re in no mood to learn, it doesn’t lessen your experience.
Ever since it began in 2010, Culture Days has attracted millions of people every year to celebrate all things arts and culture at free performances, workshops, and markets across Canada. Each province and territory has its own kick-off event and this year, Thunder Bay has been chosen to get Ontario’s party started.