Andrew Hawlitzky, Author at Niagara Now

Coaches Kurt Hamm and Gary Friesen enter NOTL Sports Wall of Fame

Two new names were added to Niagara-on-the-Lake’s Sports Wall of Fame on Friday, honouring youth soccer coach Kurt Hamm and former Ontario Hockey League player Gary Friesen.

Yellow Door teens bring Broadway hit ‘Hadestown’ to NOTL stage

A Broadway musical that swept the Tony Awards and set a new record at the box office this summer is coming to Niagara-on-the-Lake this week. Performances are set for Aug. 28 to 30.

Residents of the Shaw’s Artists’ Village talk life in new home

The Artists’ Village’s residences for actors and other peformers with the Shaw Festival opened in February. The apartments have been nearly full since April.

Shaw’s Artists’ Village opens its doors in Niagara-on-the-Lake

The Shaw Festival is celebrating the opening of a campus that will house dozens of performers who put on the theatre company’s productions, plus education and outreach programs.

NOTL church celebrates 200 years with 37th annual Peach Festival

The parish, founded in 1826, is celebrating its 200th anniversary, and the annual peach festival is one stop in a season of bicentennial events being held this year.

Behind the harvest: NOTL artist turns her brush to Niagara’s agricultural community

Nancy Wardle puts the people behind Niagara’s harvest on canvas in a new portrait exhibition, arguing residents admire farms while often overlooking the workers who sustain them.

300 classic cars rev up to Kinsmen’s 26th Show and Shine

A night of rain threatened the outdoor grounds of the Kinsmen Club of Niagara-on-the-Lake’s biggest fundraiser, but the fields dried in time and more than 300 classic cars rolled into the 26th annual Show and Shine on Sunday.

Hummel family pledges $125K to Niagara Pumphouse

The art centre’s board chair says this donation will help it expand its programs, support artists and improve the spaces the centre shares with the public.

Heritage Festival gives public first look inside museum founder’s home

Rain and flooding across Niagara could not keep an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 visitors from the NOTL Museum’s annual Heritage Festival on Monday, where the public got its first real look inside the former home of museum founder Janet Carnochan.

Tornado warnings cut Art at the Pumphouse festivities short

Thunderstorms rolled over the Niagara Pumphouse Arts Centre around 11 a.m. Sunday, forcing Art at the Pumphouse to close hours early and cancelling a full afternoon of demonstrations, live music and in-person sales.

Volunteers step forward at 63rd St. Davids Lions Carnival

The St. Davids Lions Club has pulled off its family carnival for a 63rd straight year, and its club president says he could not be happier with the number of people who came out to the village fairgrounds.

‘If negativity can grow so fast, positivity can too’: Joyous NOTL celebrates annual picnic

The picnic brings together members of a private Facebook group Mariah Reese started in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, to push back against the negativity she saw taking over local online spaces.

Gordon Lightfoot’s nephew brings his uncle’s songs to St. Mark’s

More than three years after Gordon Lightfoot’s death, his music filled St. Mark’s Anglican Church as a sold-out audience gathered to celebrate the Canadian icon through the voices and instruments of musicians who knew him.

‘Grassroots’ investment will decide soccer’s future in Canada, NOTL club president says

Canada’s best FIFA World Cup showing is over, and the president of Niagara-on-the-Lake’s youth soccer club says the game’s future in this country now depends on what happens far from the big stadiums.

St. Davids firefighters donate $9,000 mower to Red Roof Retreat

The St. Davids Firefighters Association bought Red Roof Retreat a $9,000 riding mower Thursday, covering an equipment cost the charity says it cannot spare from its $4.3-million building project.

PHOTOS: Cake parade packs Simcoe Park for Canada Day despite extreme heat

Niagara-on-the-Lake’s annual Canada Day cake parade rolled into Simcoe Park on Wednesday behind an electric-converted Model T, drawing hundreds of residents, clad in red and white, for a slice of the town’s signature cake.

Farmworkers mourn colleague and friend at roadside vigil

Those who knew Sínhue Garcia are grieving the loss of someone they say was a generous and caring person — and whose death has deepened fears about the rural roads farmworkers cycle every day.

Immigration cuts will gut Niagara farm labour, migrant workers warn

As the federal government moves forward on plans to continue cutting Canada’s immigration levels, migrant farmworkers and their advocates pressed Ottawa for permanent residency at a Virgil rally.

Canada’s World Cup breakthrough raises stakes for NOTL’s youth soccer club

For a sport that’s often fought for attention behind hockey, baseball and basketball in Canada, this year’s World Cup is giving soccer a boost that’s being felt across the country — including by players and their families here at home.

St. Andrew’s Strawberry Fest sells out berries by noon

More than 5,000 residents and visitors returned to Simcoe Street for the annual, one-day, volunteer-run, start-of-summer festival, which supports the 200-year-old church.

Drums at Ryerson Park welcome summer at the lake’s edge

Drums, handpan music and a sunset over Lake Ontario marked Niagara-on-the-Lake’s ninth summer solstice celebration on Sunday, after flooding washed out the larger Port Dalhousie event one city over.

Second-hand bookstore opens in Virgil to support NOTL’s seasonal farmworkers

A new used bookstore in Virgil is turning readers into donors, with every book, puzzle and game sold helping fund programs for seasonal agricultural workers in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Shaw Guild opens eight private gardens for milestone garden tour

Visitors toured the gardens across Old Town and Queenston, with the biggest draw this year, and a new feature of the tour, being the McArthur Estate’s garden.

Music Niagara opens 28th season with young classical artists at the helm

A rainy Sunday afternoon provided an unlikely backdrop for Antonio Vivaldi’s “Spring,” as Music Niagara opened its 28th summer festival with a concert featuring emerging Canadian musicians.

Rain cancels farmworkers cricket match, but gathering proves bigger than the game

The annual Niagara-on-the-Lake versus Vineland farmworkers cricket match washed out Sunday for the first time in its roughly 35-year history, but the rain couldn’t stop the good vibes.

Author's Latest