Skeleton Park Arts Festival
Nothing says “let’s celebrate art and community” quite like gathering in a former 19th-century burial ground… enter the Skeleton Park Arts Festival. Held every summer solstice in McBurney Park (nickname earned the hard way: actual cemetery, occasional bone lore, no big deal), this free, grassroots festival is peak Kingston energy.
Thanks to the Kingston Arts Council and a dedicated crew of local creatives, what started as a chill neighbourhood picnic has turned into a multi-day arts explosion… live music, workshops, films, markets, yoga, puppets, poetry, and probably someone you know selling handmade something. It’s also the kind of place where artists meet other artists, connections get made, collaborations are born, and you can actually see the community building itself.
It’s wholesome, it’s weird, it’s deeply community-driven, and lands somewhere between wonderfully organized and delightfully unhinged. Come for the art, stay because you joined a drum circle.
Please enjoy this small collection of Skeleton Park Arts Festival poster history, a snapshot of a community that just keeps showing up and making things. A bonus SPAF poster can be found over in the Sarah Harmer collection. Also feel free to wander through the tags at the bottom of the page for more on the artists and venues sprinkled throughout.
Artists featured in this poster collection:
24th Street Wailers, !Ay Papi!, Abby Stewart, The Abrams Brothers, Ambush, The Barefoot Players, Blue Swing Jazz Quartet, Buck Jones, Butterfingers, Chaka, Christina Tracy, Daniel Chalmers Affair, Danielle Lennon, D’Harmo, Dirtminers, DJ Bluestocking, Dorothea Pass, Erika Lamon, Fred Eaglesmith, Gary Rasberry & The Woodshed Orchestra, Glenna Davis, The Gertrudes, Grimwits, Hawksley Workman, The Heavyweights Brass Band, Hey Kids!, The Hidden Cameras, Ianspotting, Infotourist, Jenica Rayne, Jonah Cristall-Clarke, Justin Bird, Karyn Ellis, Kingston Stilters, Kings Don Taiko, Kinetiq Crew, Kyra & Tully, The Lady Racers, Lee Maracle, The Lemon Bucket Orchestra, Luther Wright and The Wrongs, Megan Hamilton, Metamorphic, Nomadic Massive, Oh Susanna, Open Voices, Pico De Gallo, PS I Love You, Reno’s Hitmen, Reuben DeGroot, Roger James, Salon Theatre, Shadowbox Theatre, Sheesham & Lotus & Son, The Silver Hearts, Skeleton Bones, Small Pond Arts, Soaring Eagle, The Soul Jazz Orchestra, The Soul Rebels, Spencer Evans, Steepfield, Swamp Ward Orchestra, Sweet Jets, Teilhard Frost & Sam Allison, The Thoroughfreds, Thousand Island Playhouse Young Company, and Treebot.
