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Where: Corktown Park, Hamilton
When: Sunday, December 21, dusk until 7 pm
Supported by the City of Hamilton Enrichment Fund and Ward 2 Community Grants.
Artists who will participate in 2025 include Hamilton Aerial Group, Edgardo Moreno, Billy Bones, Melanie Skene, Ingrid Mayrhofer, Sound Effect Crew, Surprise! Hamilton, Todd Murray and Darryl Gold, César Córdoba, and Hamilton Beat Harmonic. Participatory activities include hip hop, basket ball, samba, and writing with Pivot Centre for Collective Action and Elders 4 Climate Sanity.
There will be a costume contest with prizes for best lit costumes and pets!
History
The Winter Solstice Festival is a multi-disciplinary annual celebration taking place in Hamilton’s Corktown Park. After its first three years of success, the festival took a break during COVID 19 and started up again in 2023, coordinated by Red Tree.
Initiated in 2017 by sound artist Dave Gould and composer Edgardo Moreno, the event is organized by a group of volunteers, artists and cultural workers, and is supported by neighbourhood associations, arts groups and our Ward II city councillor. On festival night, local performers, sound/film/video artists and visual artists are joined by participating audience.
Many people around the world celebrate festivals of lights during this time of year. The days get shorter until the shortest day and longest night on winter solstice. Every day that follows after December 21st, will get a little longer, and cultures from time immemorial have been celebrating the return of the sun and light. At this gloomy time of the year, artists and cultural workers brighten up the sky with lights and fire performances all over the northern hemisphere.
Red Tree Artists' Collective 