Bizarre and strange explored in Toronto festival this week
Published June 2, 2025 at 3:09 pm
The Festival of Bizarre Toronto History is on this week in the city.
The festival runs from June 2 to 8 and is dedicated to exploring strange stories. The week includes online lectures, panels, interviews and walking tours featuring some of Toronto’s greatest storytellers.
The event kicks off with a Zoom talk about Canada’s strangest prime minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King. Prime minister for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948, King was known to hold séances. He claimed to have communicated with Leonardo da Vinci, Wilfrid Laurier, his dead mother, his grandfather, and several of his dead dogs, as well as the spirit of the late U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
There are Zoom lectures or panels each evening this week. Topics include the grisly history of the Don Jail, Toronto’s weirdest contests, a Toronto plot to firebomb New York City, and the dog of the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe.
On the weekend, walks include the shocking scandals of Forest Hill, bizarre tales of Toronto’s medical history, a tour of the graves of Mount Pleasant Cemetery, and a gruesome tour of downtown Toronto.
Tickets are $49.50 for the entire festival or $17.50 for each event.
Learn more and purchase tickets online here.
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Lead photo of the Don Jail in the 1860s: Canadian Heritage Gallery