A self-guided Tragically Hip Kingston Tour: 19 spots to hit

If there’s any one band that Canadians associate with home, it’s The Tragically Hip. With 13 studio albums, two live albums, two EPs, more than 60 singles, and 17 Juno Awards, their music has provided the stories that connect us and the soundtrack to Canadian summers for decades.

All six members of The Hip are originally from Kingston, Ontario. (Yes, six: you likely know singer Gord Downie, guitarists Paul Langlois and Rob Baker, bassist Gord Sinclair, and drummer Johnny Fay. But you may not have heard of Davis Manning, who played saxophone with the band in its early days. He left in 1986 and was replaced by Langlois before The Hip recorded their first EP.)

The Tragically Hip’s first and final shows both took place in Kingston, and the latter became a nationwide celebration that was broadcast live on the CBC and watched by more than 11 million people. August 20, 2026, marks the 10th anniversary of The Tragically Hip’s final concert.

Whether you’re heading to Kingston to mark this milestone or simply to explore, you can add a dose of The Hip to your visit with this self-guided Tragically Hip Kingston tour. It includes a walking portion with stops in downtown Kingston and Queen’s University campus as well as a few key locations further out.

Have questions about planning your visit to Kingston? Ask in our Road Trips in Canada Facebook community!

Presented in partnership with Visit Kingston

This post contains affiliate links. If you click on these and make a booking or purchase, we will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Check our Disclaimer for more information. Thanks for your support!

2026 Tragically Hip events in Kingston

Kingston is celebrating the 10th anniversary of The Tragically Hip’s final concert all summer long. From the new Kingston signs along Highway 401 to special events and exhibitions, the program dubbed Forever Hip is an essential experience for any dedicated fan of the band. Check out the highlights of this summer’s events below.

10th anniversary celebration weekend

From August 20 to 22, 2026, Kingston is honouring the 10th anniversary of The Tragically Hip’s final concert by hosting a weekend packed with Hip-themed events.

On Thursday, August 20, the exact date of the 10-year anniversary, an event called Rockin’ the Square will see Choir!Choir!Choir! lead the crowd in Springer Market Square through singalongs of classic songs from The Hip’s catalogue. They’ll be joined on stage by Kingston musicians like Miss Emily, The Abrams, Rob Baker’s son’s band Thom Draper, and more.

On Friday, August 21, music videos and clips will play in Springer Market Square throughout the day, and visitors can join guided music-themed walking tours through the city hosted by the Kingston Music Office. That evening, the square will host a free screening of The Tragically Hip documentary Long Time Running, which followed the band’s final tour across Canada.

The big event happens on Saturday, August 22, when the CBC will air a commercial-free rebroadcast of The Hip’s final concert across Canada under the name The Tragically Hip: A National Celebration. Just like the original concert when 25,000 fans gathered in Springer Market Square to watch the livestream together, fans are invited to watch the rebroadcast in the square and recreate that heartbreaking and magical experience.

See The Tragically Hip musical It’s a Good Life if You Don’t Weaken

It’s a Good Life if You Don’t Weaken, the new musical based on songs from The Tragically Hip, opens at the Grand Theatre in downtown Kingston on October 22 and runs until November 8.

I saw it during its opening run while on a day trip to Hamilton and absolutely loved it. The fictional story follows an Iraqi journalist turned refugee who flees during the Gulf War and lands in Kingston. There, the people and experiences he encounters teach him what it means to be Canadian. This description doesn’t make it sound like songs from The Hip would fit, but when they land, they’re very powerful. Whether you’re a fan of The Hip or of musical theatre, it’s a must see.

The Kingston production will be put on by the Thousand Island Playhouse, which is based in the nearby town of Gananoque in the Thousand Islands region. Tickets are already on sale, so grab them while you can and start planning your autumn Kingston getaway.

See the Music from Miles Around exhibit

A free interactive exhibit called Music from Miles Around is on display at Kingston’s City Hall. It features photographs, posters, artifacts, and immersive elements that take visitors through the Kingston music scene, from iconic acts like The Tragically Hip all the way to the emerging artists of today. City Hall is located right downtown between Springer Market Square and the Visitor Information Centre, so it’s an easy add-on to your itinerary. The exhibition is open daily except Mondays until June 2027.

Look for the Play Me Kingston art installations

If you’ve seen the painted moose statues in Toronto or the bison near Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Park, you’ll have an idea of what’s happening here. The Downtown Kingston BIA is putting on a temporary public art installation dubbed Play Me Kingston that will see 10 oversized guitar sculptures — five six-foot tall vertical guitars and five three-foot horizontal ones — featuring creations by local artists inspired by the Kingston music scene. The guitars will hit the streets this summer.

A self-guided Tragically Hip Kingston walking tour

This walking tour will guide you to sites in downtown Kingston and Queen’s University that are directly related to the history of The Tragically Hip. If you’re looking for a walking tour that covers Kingston’s music scene more generally, check out Visit Kingston’s free Creative Kingston walking tours. The music tour includes locations related to The Hip and several other well-known Kingston musicians such as Sarah Harmer, The Glorious Sons, The Mahones, and more.

You’ll need roughly two hours to complete the full walking tour depending on your pace. If you follow the locations in the order set out below, you’ll walk in a loop and end up a couple of blocks from where you started near the Kingston waterfront. Street signs can be hard to spot in some places, so take a digital or paper map along to help you stay on track. The Google Maps route above is downloadable to your device, or you can enter the address for each location as you go.

The Tragically Hip Way and Slush Puppie Place

1 The Tragically Hip Way

The Tragically Hip’s first and last shows were played within a block of each other in downtown Kingston. The band played their first show for 13 people at the Kingston Artists’ Association. It’s not much to look at today, but if you want to swing by, you can find it at 21A Queen Street.

The Hip’s final show was played at Kingston’s arena, which at the time was known as the K-Rock Centre and today is called Slush Puppie Place. That last concert was to a sellout crowd of 6,700 people, including then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Another 25,000 people gathered in Springer Market Square a few blocks away to watch the concert via livestream.

This block between King Street and Ontario Street is officially designated The Tragically Hip Way in honour of the band and that concert. While you’re here, check out the street signs, the mural featuring lyrics and history from The Hip just outside the arena’s main entrance, and The Hip sign where you can become the I in HIP and snap a selfie.

On your way to your next stop, keep an eye out for an alleyway near Original Bubba’s Pizza on the south side of King Street just west of Princess Street. There’s nothing to see there today, but this alleyway is the site where Davis Manning painted a now-famous mural just before quitting the band that said: “The Hip Live Between Us.”

The mural was a reference to how torn he felt having to choose between a band with huge aspirations or his stable life and girlfriend in Kingston. The mural inspired the title of Live Between Us, The Hip’s first live album. (Their third live album from the Man Machine Poem tour, Live July 22 – August 20, 2016, will be released on August 21 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the final concert.)

The Toucan

76 Princess Street

The Toucan pub is located in Rochleau Court, one of the wonderful and vibrant courtyards you’ll find in downtown Kingston. Back when it was known as the Terrapin Tavern, The Tragically Hip was just one of many local bands to regularly grace the pub’s tiny stage. According to locals, the Terrapin’s stage was even smaller then than the one you’ll see today: it was in a small nook you can spot right next to the bar. Legend has it that when The Hip played here in their early days, Johnny Fay would go down to the basement between sets to complete his high school homework!

Another Kingston institution, Chez Piggy restaurant, is directly opposite The Toucan in Rochleau Court. While it has no direct history with The Hip — although the band’s members have almost certainly enjoyed many meals there, along with just about everyone who’s called Kingston home — the restaurant has a very cool music connection.

Zal Yanovsky was the lead guitarist for folk-rock band The Lovin’ Spoonful in the 1960s. After he and his wife settled in Kingston, they started Chez Piggy in 1979 and the nearby Pan Chancho Bakery in 1994. Yanovsky passed away in 2002, and both establishments remain staples of Kingston’s culinary scene.

Zap Records

20 Montreal Street

Forever Hip mural

197 Brock Street

Visit Kingston has installed a new mural commemorating this year’s Forever Hip celebrations in Kingston. You’ll find this four-storey wrap-style mural integrated into the elevator shaft on the side of the Chown Memorial Parking Garage, across the street from Hotel Dieu Hospital.

Copper Penny

240 Princess Street

The Copper Penny restaurant is a popular spot to grab a bite to eat before a show at the Kingston Grand Theatre, which is less than a block to the south.

While The Hip aren’t known to have played at this exact spot, there was a second Copper Penny location in Kingston’s west end in the 1980s where the band played one of its earliest recorded gigs. The Copper Penny Bath Road set is available online and predates Paul Langlois’s time with the band as it features Davis Manning on saxophone.

McBurney Park / Skeleton Park

30 Alma Street

This park, officially named McBurney Park but nicknamed Skeleton Park by locals, is one of the few Kingston-area landmarks to be featured in The Tragically Hip’s lyrics. In this case, the song is an obscure one: Skeleton Park was available only with preorders of the album We Are the Same when it was released on iTunes in 2009.

“In Skeleton Park, one fine summer evening … the ghosts of the Rideau Canal start to sing.”

McBurney Park was the site of Kingston’s main cemetery until 1864. This lyric refers to the workers who died and were buried in this park after contracting malaria while constructing the Rideau Canal in the early 1800s. That’s some deep Canadiana from a very deep cut, in true Tragically Hip style.

The park continues to be a prominent feature in Kingston. Today, it plays home to the Skeleton Park Arts Festival, which fills the park with music and art exhibitions during the summer solstice weekend each June.

The Hub

Princess and Division Streets

This intersection, known as The Hub, is the heart of off-campus student life for Queen’s University. Three prominent music venues are located here: Stages Nightclub, The Brass Pub, and The Ale House (formerly AJ’s Hangar). I couldn’t find evidence that The Hip played any of these, but I wouldn’t doubt it as they have long been among Kingston’s top student hangouts.

The Hub is also home to Brian’s Record Option, another beloved Kingston record store. Owner Brian Lipsin has been operating his shop from the same spot for nearly 50 years. A devastating flood threatened its closure in 2019, but Lipsin was able to bounce back with support from the Kingston community. Browsing here can be overwhelming, but if you’re looking for something specific, he probably has it. Don’t hesitate to ask Lipsin to track it down for you.

The corner of Princess and Division streets has the weirdest connection to The Tragically Hip on this list. If you stand just outside the Pita Pit — this is the chain’s original location, by the way, which opened in 1995 — you’ll find an unusual statue of an anthropomorphic pigeon. Take a closer look and you’ll notice he’s wearing t-shirt featuring The Tragically Hip.

The pigeon was created by Brandon Vickerd, a sculptor from Hamilton, Ontario, who received permission from the band to incorporate their name into the piece. This pigeon was once accompanied by a squirrel, and together they formed an art installation called The Wilds of Kingston that was a unique take on urban wildlife. However, the pigeon’s squirrel friend seems to have gone missing recently. It’s quite the mystery…

From here, the walking tour heads into Queen’s University campus. Three of the band’s members — Gord Downie, Rob Baker, and Gord Sinclair — graduated from Queen’s in the 1980s, and all five long-time members received honorary degrees in 2016. As a result, Queen’s campus has plenty of history related to The Hip. It’s a longer walk to the next stops, so if you need to abbreviate the tour, skip ahead to the Frontenac Club to head back into downtown.

Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute (KCVI)

235 Frontenac Street

Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute (KCVI) was the high school attended by all five long-time members of The Tragically Hip. It had the distinction of being the oldest public school in Ontario until it closed in 2020.

During their time here, each of the band’s members wove their way into and out of various bands that went by names like The Slinks, Rick and the Rodents, and The Filters. By the time The Hip formed in 1984, Gord Downie, Gord Sinclair, and Rob Baker were students at Queen’s University, while Johnny Fay was still at KCVI.

The Hip weren’t the only talent to come out of KCVI. David Usher, the lead singer for 90s alt-rock band Moist, and Hugh Dillon of The Headstones also studied here. Other prominent graduates include Canada’s first Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, author Robertson Davies, and flamboyant hockey coach and commentator Don Cherry.

Today, this beautiful collegiate Gothic-style building is owned by Queen’s University and is being used for the school’s athletics programs. However, the structure is in rough shape and its long-term future is uncertain. Stop by and check it out while you can.

CFRC 101.9 FM

62 Fifth Field Company Lane

Queen’s University’s CFRC 101.9 FM is the longest-running campus radio station in Canada. The Tragically Hip’s Gord Sinclair is an alumnus of the station along with prominent Canadian media personalities like sports broadcaster Chris Cuthbert and CBC Radio hosts Lorne Greene, Shelagh Rogers, and Stu Mills. You can bet plenty of songs by The Tragically Hip have been sent over the airwaves from this humble corner of Queen’s campus over the past four decades!

Clark Hall Pub

30 Fifth Field Company Lane

Many of the Kingston pubs played by The Hip have since closed. However, Clark Hall Pub lives on as the official pub of the Queen’s Engineering Society and the oldest pub on Queen’s University campus. The Hip performed here early in their careers, including entering — and losing — a competition to be the pub’s house band.

Here’s the bad news: to get into Clark Hall Pub, you either have to be a Queen’s student, professor, alumni (during Homecoming), or their guest. But it’s totally above board to catch a glimpse of this piece of The Hip’s history from the outside as you stroll past.

The Grad Club

162 Barrie Street

Despite the name, The Grad Club on Queen’s University campus is open to everyone, including undergraduate students and Kingston visitors. The pub offers food, craft beer on tap, a study space for students, and special events. For decades, it’s also been known as a premier venue for live music thanks to its intimate space. In a CBC Radio listener survey conducted in 2009, The Grad Club was named among the top 10 live music venues in Canada.

The Tragically Hip played here when they were students at Queen’s, as have many other up and coming acts from Kingston and elsewhere. Unfortunately, The Grad Club is closed indefinitely as of this writing while its funding is being restructured.

Frontenac Club

225 King Street East

The Frontenac Club is a beautiful boutique hotel in the heart of Kingston. Its current iteration came to life in 2019 from the bones of a former Bank of Montreal branch, a limestone house, and a wing of a since-retired social club. Today, it houses 20 beautifully appointed suites, a restaurant aptly named The Bank, and carefully retained details such as the bank’s original vault.

There are two distinct connections to The Tragically Hip at the Frontenac Club. Both involve two of the hotel’s owners, Martin and Michelle Skolnick, who are Kingston locals and friends with The Hip guitarist Paul Langlois.

If you’re lucky enough to snag the Backstage suite, you’ll find it adorned with amazing memorabilia. Langlois’s personal copies of four of the band’s platinum and gold albums are hanging on the walls, as are limited-edition prints of photos from The Hip’s final concert.

There’s also a record player with vinyls from The Hip and other artists, books related to the band, and photos of other famous Kingston personalities. A fireplace, plush linens, a soaker tub, and spa-quality toiletries round out the premium experience.

The other detail related to The Hip doesn’t require you to be an overnight guest. If you stop in at The Bank for a meal or a drink, ask if you can see the Juno award. As long as the private dining room isn’t occupied, the staff will be happy to oblige. There, you’ll catch a glimpse of the actual Juno award The Hip received for Best Rock Album for Phantom Power in 1998.

Ahead by a Century mural

1 Johnson Street

Murals seem to be woven into The Hip’s lore as well as Kingston’s, and there’s one more to see on the waterfront that has a connection to both. A massive mural featuring Kingston themes wraps around the base of the Delta Kingston Waterfront, created by Kingston-based mural artist EronOne. To see the portion dedicated to The Hip, walk to the base of Johnson Street and continue about halfway down the path on the west side of the Delta. You’ll find the lyrics to the first verse of Ahead by a Century enshrined in the pier overlooking Lake Ontario.

Springer Market Square

1 Market Street

This public space outside City Hall is serves as the heart of Kingston. It’s home to the Kingston Public Market, the oldest and longest-running market of its kind in Ontario held here three times weekly year-round. During the summer, the square often hosts concerts and community events, while winter sees it transform into an outdoor skating rink.

The City of Kingston installed a memorial stone at Springer Market Square in 2017 to commemorate the crowd of 25,000 that gathered there for The Tragically Hip’s final concert. It’s inscribed with lyrics from the song Blow at High Dough: “Everybody was in it for miles around.” You can find the stone near King Street East directly in front of the entrance to City Hall.

Kingston Visitor Information Centre

209 Ontario Street

Think of this as the gift shop at the end of the tour! Visit Kingston has some excellent merch available at the visitor centre as part of this year’s Forever Hip celebrations including t-shirts, pins, iron-on patches, and more. You can also learn more about other things to do in the city like Kingston Penitentiary tours, 1000 Islands Cruises, Kingston Trolley Tours, and Fort Henry National Historic Site. Don’t forget to snap a photo with the Kingston sign!

Four more Hip-related stops west of downtown Kingston

There are a few more spots in and around Kingston with connections to The Tragically Hip that you may find worth checking out, especially if your drive home will take you to the west. They’re presented here in the order you’ll encounter them as you leave downtown.

Gord Edgar Downie Pier

300 King Street West

This pier, which sits at the west end of the city’s Breakwater Park on the shores of Lake Ontario, was refurbished and renamed in honour of Gord Downie in July 2018. It’s a fitting way to honour the Tragically Hip’s frontman: his family lived just across from the city’s original pier, and he was an advocate for water conservation as an ambassador of Swim Drink Fish. Today, the pier is a popular spot for swimming in the lake on warm summer days.

Bellevue House National Historic Site

35 Centre Street

Bellevue House National Historic Site is preserved by Parks Canada for a few reasons. The main one is to demonstrate the connection between Kingston and Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald. He and his family lived in this Tuscan Villa-style home for roughly a year from 1848 to 1849.

We know today that Macdonald left a polarized legacy. His proponents praise him as an architect of Canada’s Confederation who expanded Canada’s territory and united the English and French. However, his overindulgence in alcohol was well-known, and several of his policies proved problematic over time.

So, how does this connect to The Hip? Sir John A. Macdonald was responsible for establishing Canada’s residential school system, which caused immense harm to Indigenous peoples. Gord Downie advocated passionately for Indigenous rights and reconciliation by creating music and art to raise awareness and establishing the Downie Wenjack Fund.

Parks Canada addresses Macdonald’s challenging legacy at the Bellevue House visitor centre through an exhibit titled The Many Voices of Confederation. The interior of the home reopened in 2024 after an extensive renovation, and these themes are also woven through the new displays. Given how tirelessly Downie worked to draw attention to these injustices, it’s very apt to see this addressed so meaningfully right in his hometown.

Millhaven Institution

5775 Bath Road, Bath

“Twelve men broke loose in ’73 / from Millhaven Maximum Security…”

These lyrics begin the song 38 Years Old from The Tragically Hip’s 1989 album Up to Here. It’s a loose interpretation of real-life events: it was 14 men who escaped, and the year was 1972. The rest of the song is fiction.

What’s very real, though, is Millhaven Institution itself, which still operates today as a maximum-security prison. Obviously, you can’t just drive up to an active prison without having a good reason for being there, so this is a drive by and wave at the sign kind of thing at best. Fortunately, the drive out of Kingston on the Loyalist Parkway is wonderfully scenic and worth the trip on its own.

Regardless, Millhaven draws some interesting connections to The Hip and Kingston. The city housed nine jails at one point in its recent history, so this would have been an ever-present influence on Gord and the boys as they grew up.

If you’d like to delve deeper into this, sign up for a Kingston Penitentiary tour during your visit. You’ll get a rare look at the inner workings of a maximum-security prison and hear stories about its history, which spanned from the mid-1830s until it closed in 2013. Millhaven was built to replace Kingston Pen, so you’ll hear it mentioned a few times throughout the tour.

The Bathouse Recording Studio

638 Highway 33, Stella

If you care enough to pass by Millhaven, then you’ll appreciate this final stop. Just west of the town of Bath on the Loyalist Parkway is The Bathouse recording studio, which is owned by members of The Tragically Hip. The band recorded many of their albums here, as have dozens more prominent Canadian artists.

This remains a working studio and is not open to the public. If you’d like to check it out from a respectful distance, there happens to be a pullout on Highway 33 directly across from the house. A quick stop here on the other side of the road would allow you a moment to acknowledge the space while respecting their privacy.

Find a hotel in Kingston

Frontenac Club

The Frontenac Club is one of Kingston’s most standout boutique hotels with 20 beautifully appointed suites, spa-quality amenities, an on-site restaurant, and interesting details such as a historic bank vault. A made-to-order breakfast is included and can be delivered directly to your room. For fans of The Tragically Hip, a stay in the Backstage suite to admire the memorabilia is a must.

Search accommodations in Kingston

(Note: This map offers an overview of available accommodations in the area. Unless otherwise detailed, these properties have not been vetted by RoadTripper.ca.)

Explore more road trips in Eastern Ontario >