Thunder Bay’s biggest music festival returned for its seventh year. This year’s Wake the Giant brought in some millennial heavy hitters, including Flo Rida, The Wallflowers, and Plain White T’s, plus Tia Wood, Shawnee Kish, Lov, and Juno Award winner Sebastian Gaskin. Check out the photos below for a feel of the day from the music, culture and tradition, and fun times in the crowd.

To geek or not to geek, that is the question. And at Thunder Bay’s favourite convention, the answer is always yes—and to the fullest!

“No one is going to believe what’s happening,” is what Lyndon Paavola remembers thinking as he saw the towering wall of forest fire flame and smoke as he and other community members of Namaygoosisagagun First Nation (also known as Collins) fled in small boats.

I was warned that Thunder Bay could be cliquey. I was warned about the neverending winters. But no one warned me about the housing crisis.

After taking a few years off due to COVID and increased shipping expenses, and eliciting community feedback, Thunder Bay’s outdoor beer fest, BrewHa, is back and better than ever with BrewHa 2.0! 

Renowned Canadian pianist Bruce Vogt is coming to Thunder Bay for a unique musical experience, bringing his exceptional skill at silent movie piano accompaniment to his appearance here in September.

Our city has a fascinating history of local shipbuilding that is not as well known as it should be. A new book by Barbara Yurkoski brings this story to life and while reading it, I was quite struck by the ingenuity and vision of the early entrepreneurs who both built and repaired these massive vessels right here.

You know the rules. 10 Plays. 10 Minutes. That’s right—the 10x10 Short Play Festival is back to celebrate theatrical talent in the city.

The club can’t handle Flo Rida, but Wake the Giant fans can this September.

Doughty’s film, To Keep Her, is a 90-minute horror/thriller made with his wife Tassia Dorsamy, exploring the literal and metaphorical experience of being in a toxic relationship.

Director Jeremy Torrie and his team at the Winnipeg-based White Bear Films are bringing a haunting piece of northern history to life with Coppermine, a sweeping historical drama based on Keith Ross Leckie’s 2008 novel of the same name.

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.