Kingston 
Experience the artistic flair of Kingston through an innovative set of nine self-guided walking tours, exploring the city’s rich film, music, and literary history.
Credit: Visit Kingston
Through these tours, you can explore historic music venues, film set locations, and inspirational sites for award-winning novels, enriched by archival materials, behind-the-scenes stories, and bilingual narrations from Kingston’s creative community members like Miss Emily and Bill Welychka.
With options spanning downtown, west and extended tours lasting from 60 minutes to two and a half hours, these free tours offer a fresh appreciation of Kingston’s rich artistic heritage for both residents and visitors with the following highlights:
- Film Tours: Visit popular film and television production locations, tracing the history of cinema in Kingston. Discover how the city’s infrastructure has been transformed for various productions, ranging from 1890s New Orleans to futuristic Star Trek settings. Each themed tour provides different insights:
- Downtown: Explore Kingston’s earliest cinemas and contemporary film festivals.
- West: Learn about productions shot at Kingston Penitentiary and Queen’s Film and Media department’s history.
- Extended: Discover the family connection behind the movie Ghostbusters, and witness the city’s versatility in film settings.
- Music Tours: Uncover the birthplaces of Canada’s talented musicians and Kingston’s lively music scene. Experience the journey of The Tragically Hip, from their first to their last show, while exploring the musical influence of Kingston artists like Miss Emily, The Mahones, and The Glorious Sons. The tours include:
- Downtown: Learn about the early days of Kingston’s musical giants and visit the site of its most exciting outdoor festival.
- West: Discover the high school with several notable musical alumni and explore Queen’s University venues that nurtured future award-winners.
- Extended: Revel in stories from Kingston’s musical past and present, passing by independent music stores and live music venues.
- Literary Tours: Discover the impact of notable Canadian authors, such as Robertson Davies and Bronwen Wallace, on Kingston. Visit literary landmarks and sites inspiring timeless literature. The tours feature:
- Downtown: Delve into Kingston’s poetry, literature, and journalism, and visit venues that celebrate the written word.
- West: Learn about a Rembrandt painting that inspired a poem and the penitentiary that sparked several literary works.
- Extended: Visit places that inspired notable writers and listen to poetry at the locations that motivated the poets.
Next time you are in Kingston, plan to explore Canada’s erstwhile capital in a whole new way.
