This year’s Niagara Festival of the Performing Arts is returning to St. Davids-Queenston United Church and the Yellow Door Theatre in Virgil with the introduction of strings and speech arts as part of the competition.  “It’s for musicians of all ages and adult classes as well," said festival director and founder Lisa Cosens Brillon. The competition, from March 27 to 31, includes classical voice, musical theatre, popular voice, classical piano, popular piano, strings and speech arts. Nearly 300 participants are signed up and ready to play as the competition returns to fully in-person festivities for the first time since 2019. “We offered virtual for...

Peyton Leigh, 15, to compete for shot at making it to Paris Games in 2024   Standing just five-foot-five, with a shoe size of eight and a half, Peyton Leigh says she is “short for a swimmer,” but the 15-year-old has never let that slow her down. The Niagara-on-the-Lake teen has just qualified to compete in the Canadian Olympic trials in two events – the 200-metre butterfly and the 400-metre freestyle. A strong performance could mean a chance to represent Canada at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Her mother Christi notes the journey toward the Olympics began when Peyton was just four months...

Legless lizards, a crocodilian and corn snakes — all of those and more were out for kids to see on March Break. On Tuesday morning the Niagara-on-the-Lake Public Library hosted a reptile show, presented by Samuel Bylsma from the Reptile Kingdom. Based in Fonthill, the Reptile Kingdom not only does educational shows, but it rescues reptiles that can no longer be taken care of by their owners.  “I want to talk about what kind of reptiles make great pets and what kind of reptiles maybe not so great pets,” Bylsma said.  More than two dozen children and parents showed up for a chance...