Winter Skating Opening Weekend presented by Batiste Dry Shampoo & Hero Patches
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Join the celebration and take your first glide of the season under the Gardiner! Enjoy a cozy skate-and-sip featuring free skate rentals, hot drinks, maple taffy, and photo moments courtesy of Batiste Dry Shampoo and Hero Patches!
Winter Skating
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We’re delighted to welcome neighbours and visitors back for another magical season of ice skating under the city lights. Lace up your skates and glide into the holidays with us! Be sure to check our Holiday and New Year hours before you visit.
Polar Bear Skate
The Bentway’s boldest winter ritual returns on December 28 with the cheeky Polar Bear Skate! Brave Torontonians are invited to strip down to their skivvies and take a fearless lap around trail to bid farewell to 2025.
Billy Bishop Free Rental Thursdays
January 8, 15, 22, 29, February 5, 12
Enjoy free skate rentals at The Bentway skate trail every Thursday evening from January 8 – February 12, thanks to the generous support of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.
Skate Sharpening
Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 6:15pm and 6:45pm
Hit the ice in style, sharpen those skates so you can sharpen those skills! Starting January 5, we will be offering bookings for skate sharpening on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 6:15pm and 6:45pm.
Bentway After School
Two 5-week session options; Jan 6-Feb 3, or Feb 10-Mar 10.
This winter, The Bentway invites young urbanists to explore and learn about their city with lots of fun, creativity, and outdoor discovery along the way! The program empowers participants to understand and influence concepts in urban design, city building, and placemaking through neighbourhood investigations, storytelling, and recreation.
Concrete to Canvas: The transformative power of urban murals
Much more than neighbourhood beautification, mural-making projects have the power to transform urban landscapes. Join The Bentway, The Creative Communities Commons (CCC) at the University of Toronto’s School of Cities, artists, and urbanists at a free public talk on November 20, exploring new models for “painting the urban landscape”.
Howl’oween
It’s the ulti-mutt fall celebration: Howl’oween at The Bentway, presented with Ren’s Pets! Gather the family, two-legged and four, for our spook-tacular costume contest. Enjoy prizes, music, local vendors, and cozy fall treats on this festive afternoon full of laughter, wagging tails, and Halloween fun for pups and their people!
Documentary Screening: A Lake Story
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After the on-water performance, gather at Harbourfront Centre’s Concert Stage during Nuit Blanche for a celebration of A Lake Story. Enjoy a documentary chronicling the project’s creative journey, see the wind-activated colour field paintings up close, and honour the community partners, paddlers, and artists who brought this story to life.
SOLAR
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A mesmerizing encounter with light transforms the Gardiner into a glowing horizon. Guided by a robotic arm and synchronized beams, SOLAR performs a spectacle of sunset by merging the sun’s rhythms with digital choreography to create an immersive experience of light and motion.
Petal and Stone
October 2025 through to 2027
A 10,000 square-foot mural project inaugurates the Gardiner Wallworks series, transforming this concrete expanse into a poetic tableau of site memory, native flora, and symbolic passage. Inspired by the architecture and ecological communities bridging The Bentway and Exhibition Place, it offers commuters and residents an evocative new lens on their urban landscape.
A Lake Story
Sep 27 & 28, 2025. Procession at 11am & 4pm
A procession of over one hundred canoes moves in unison across Toronto’s eastern Waterfront on September 27/28, each carrying colour field paintings made with pigments sourced from the lake/shoreline and activated by the wind. A Lake Story will articulate Lake Ontario’s colour story across the sky and water, amplifying the lake’s own voices of vibrancy, ecosystem, and community.
Roller Skate Lessons: September 5
September 5 6pm-7pm and 7pm-8pm
Learn how to roll with us! This summer, we’re offering weekly roller skate lessons for those who are looking to gain basic skills. Our expert instructors will help novice skaters build confidence on wheels and navigate our figure-eight trail.
Cool Spots: Remapping a Hotter Toronto
Accepting Cool Spots July to September
Discover and share the places that keep you cool in Toronto! From shaded underpasses to breezy green spaces, your submissions will help shape a growing community map of urban relief and resilience.
Moving Forest @ The Bentway Skate Trail
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See you under our smaller pop up canopy of 10 trees at the Bentway Skate Trail, from July 20 until the end of our summer season! These 10 trees were part of a flock of 50 trees in shopping carts that travelled throughout the city, stopping to create a refreshing shade canopy in usually-sunny spaces.
Hosted Event RentalYohomoFest 2025
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Nibwaakaawin: The Balance of Warmth and Coolness
Friday, July 25, 6:00pm-10:00pm; Saturday, July 26, 1:00pm-4:00pm
From Milkweed to Monarchs
Did you know that monarch butterflies migrate 4,800km each year from Canada to Mexico? Join us for this hands-on workshop to learn how milkweed plants help support this journey with presented with Toronto and Region Conservation Authority!
Beautiful Native Plants
Why is it so important to re-plant native plants across Toronto? Come find out at this hands-on workshop with Toronto and Region Conservation Authority!
Moving Forest Parade to Waterfront Neighbourhood Centre
Experience our volunteer-led parade of the Moving Forest urban canopy and welcome the trees as they arrive at their new destination! 50 tree-filled shopping carts will arrive at the Waterfront Neighbourhood Centre to create a shady gathering place for community, conversation, and reflection on the importance of urban nature.
Moving Forest Parade to Harbourfront Centre
Experience our volunteer-led parade of the Moving Forest urban canopy and welcome the trees as they arrive at their new destination! 50 tree-filled shopping carts will arrive at the Harbourfront Centre to create a shady gathering place for community, conversation, and reflection on the importance of urban nature.
Art Socials: July 9
In this workshop, you will learn some of the basics of creating miniature foods using polymer clay. Together with instructor Kiana Simmons, participants will mix clay to achieve realistic colours, shape the pieces, and add details using clay and clay tools. You will take home a tiny wooden box of miniature food and the skills to continue exploring polymer clay miniatures at home! All supplies will be provided, and you may even have some extra clay to take home.
Roller Skate Lessons: August 22
August 22 6pm-7pm and 7pm-8pm
Learn how to roll with us! This summer, we’re offering weekly roller skate lessons for those who are looking to gain basic skills. Our expert instructors will help novice skaters build confidence on wheels and navigate our figure-eight trail.
Art Socials: June 18
Find out how fun and easy it can be to screen print designs on felt to create your own custom patch and pouch! Erin MacKeen will show you how to print using small frameless screens of illustrations inspired by The Bentway’s Sun/Shade exhibition and share simple techniques for stitching and assembly. You can use what you made to add a little personality to your favourite backpack and finally have a place to keep your headphones (or a secret snack).