Compiled by Richard Haynes, Site Co-ordinator at Fort York
Ongoing Summer Programming
Daily throughout July and August, 10 am to 5 pm
Thrill to the booming of the cannon, the firing of muskets, the vibrant colours of the uniformed guard, and the lively music of fife and drum. These are the sights and sounds of Fort York this summer. Visitors will enjoy hourly demonstrations of military music, drill, musketry, and artillery performed by students representing the Canadian Fencible Regiment that was garrisoned at the fort at the end of the War of 1812. Highlights include the cannon firing at 12:30 pm and the music of the Fort York Drums (a fife & drum corps) in the afternoons.
Regular admission weekdays, free admission weekends and Simcoe Day
AUGUST
Simcoe Day
Mon. August 2, 10 am to 5 pm
John Graves Simcoe was the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada (Toronto) in 1793 and was the first lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada (Ontario). Come learn about the birthplace of Toronto and thrill to the sounds of musketry, cannons, and the fife and drum. The Fort George Guard joins us for this great day.
Free admission
Toronto: City of Words
Tues. August 3, 7:30 pm
This illustrated talk by Sarah Elton and photographer Kevin Robbins is a unique tour through Toronto’s landscapes, streets, and souls. Their illustrated book, City of Words: Toronto through Her Writers’ Eyes, opens up the city as our writers have discovered it. “There is no city that does not dream,” writes poet and novelist Anne Michaels, and City of Words is a literary key to all we’ve been and all we’re becoming.
Cost $9 (including HST)
Fort York Festival
Great Voices, a theatrical production on the grounds of Fort York
August 4 to 13 and 16 to 20, 7:30 pm
Written by nationally known playwrights Nick Salutin and Dale Hamilton, Great Voices is a 90-minute site-specific theatrical collage of historical Toronto from Indigenous times to the present, featuring Stephen Jackman-Torkoff and Susanna Moodie, combined with campfires, songs, fireworks, and food animating Toronto where the city began, at Fort York. Original music composed by songwriter James Gordon is sung by the composer and by members of the Fort York Guard. Produced by Sid Bruyn.
Cost $25 (including HST). For more information go to www.festivalatthefort.ca
Conscious Food Festival
Sat. and Sun. August 14 and 15, 11 am to 7 pm
The Conscious Food Festival is Toronto’s first and only outdoor collaborative festival that promotes the sustainable food movement while introducing thousands of people to food that is local, natural, healthy, and delicious. Experience a range of activities such as tastings, cooking demonstrations and workshops, and bring cultural and natural restaurants, local farms, and local food suppliers to your table.
COST: $20 in advance and $24 at the gate for Adults, $12 in advance and $15 at the gate for Youth (13-18 yrs), Children (12 and under) are free. Admission prices include 5 food/drink sample vouchers ($5 value). Go to www.consciousfoodfestival.ca for further details
SEPTEMBER
The Queen’s York Rangers (1st American Regiment) present: The Battle of Brandywine Parade
Sat. September 11, 4 to 6:15 pm
Join us to commemorate the Battle of Brandywine and the Battle of Queenston Heights. The parade will feature the The Queen’s York Rangers, Regimental Pipes, and the 41st Regiment of Foot, and will represent the unit’s Revolutionary War period and two Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps affiliated with the Regiment. There will also be military displays and a show by the Queen’s York Rangers re-enactors. In attendance will be the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, The Honourable David C. Onley, Lt. General Leslie and Major General Fraser.
Free admission
When the Landlords Became Tenants
The 1828 Council at Fort York with the Mississauga
Mon. September 27, 7:30 pm
On 30 January 1828, three leading Mississauga chiefs – Aginence from the Credit River to the west of York; Sunday from the Bay of Quinte to the east; and Paudash from Rice Lake to the northeast – met in Council at Fort York. The Indian Agent quickly came to the point. They were there, for the Mississauga that, contrary to the Mississaugas’ own understanding, the British now owned the land on which their communities stood.
In his illustrated talk Donald Smith, recently retired from the University of Calgary and the author of Sacred Feathers (University of Toronto Press, 1987), a biography of Mississauga chief Peter Jones, will review the history of the Mississauga in the early and mid-19th century. Peter Jones’s minutes of the 1828 Fort York Council provide the starting point for his illustrated talk.
Responding to Professor Smith’s presentation will be a review of the 180 years of Mississauga history since 1828 by a historian and community leader from today’s Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation (www.newcreditfirstnation.com).
Cost $9 (including HST)
Original printed pages
