In Hamilton for the Summer? Need Stuff to Do?

"In Hamilton for the Summer? Need Stuff to Do?", May 1 2008

The academic year is finally OVER! w00t! Many McMaster students are part of the mass exodus that leaves Hamilton by

the end of April. But, many others stay in the Hammer for work or to take summer school. But with school over, many people do not know what to do with their spare time.

According to the 2006 census, Hamilton is actually the sixth largest city in Canada, with a population of 504,559. Although Hamilton is much smaller than Toronto, it is larger than many other cities in Ontario, as well as some of the large cities in other provinces (Quebec City, Halifax, and Surrey for example). This means that there should be tons of things to do over the next four months, but quite often the problem is that students do not know where to look.

A very under-utilized resource by students is Compass. Compass has a kiosk in the centre of the main floor of the student centre, but has a website as well. Not only does Compass provide information about community events throughout the academic year, it does so during the summer months too. If you check out their Community Events page, you can see a list of student-orientated activities that are occurring until the end of August. That page also lists five Hamilton events websites for you to peruse. Just like in the school year, they sell transportation tickets to get you around Hamilton as well as outside of it. In addition to this, they are also selling discounted tickets to Canada’s Wonderland.

Want to see some live music in Hamilton? You have a few options. There is Steel City Music, which has information on bands and singers playing in all of Hamilton’s venues. These artists may be local and unsigned, or internationally famous. If you are a music snob, you can also check out the Ticketmaster website for music events happening in this area.

Local pubs and clubs will continue to have events throughout the summer. Many of them will continue the same weekly schedule that they had during the school year in terms of events. This means karaoke, darts tournaments, live music, etc. The past few years, Hess Village has put on a Mardi Gras festival. There is no word on the event for this year yet, but last year’s party happened on June 22^nd and 23^rd.

It seems as though I always mention this, but Facebook is once again here when you need it. There are two McMaster-based groups that relate to being in Hamilton for the summer. They are Are YOU living in Hamilton for summer 2008? and Why yes I’m at Mac for Spring/Summer 2008. Neither group has anything listed in terms of events as of yet, but “summer” only started today, so give it time (I hope).

Lastly, you can always leave Hamilton. I know this sort of defeats the purpose of this article, but Hamilton is very close to a lot of other major Canadian and US cities. To get to Toronto all you need to do is hop on GO Transit. If you want to go to the United States, you can take the Greyhound. If you want to go to Montreal, you can do that via a combination of GO Transit and VIA rail, or by taking Greyhound. And if you have access to a car...there is always going somewhere up North, so you can actually see what stars look like at night.

If you are in Hamilton there really is a lot to do! I haven’t even mentioned the local museums, the Royal Botanical Gardens, African Lion Safari, Flamborough Downs, Ghost Walks, the planetarium, art galleries, the aviary...there are literally lots and lots of options to seek out. If you are still bored with all of the previously mentioned possibilities then there is something very wrong with you!