With over 22% of its population having French as its mother tongue, It has an important role to provide a calendar of events and news about arts and culture activities. The city is home to two art galleries—the
Art Gallery of Sudbury and
La Galerie du Nouvel-Ontario. Both are dedicated primarily to Canadian art, especially artists from Northern Ontario. The city's only professional theatre company is the francophone
Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario (TNO), one of seven organizations residing at the
Place des Arts, where it also stages its performances. The
Sudbury Theatre Centre, which was the city's only professional English-language theatre company, merged with
YES Theatre in 2023, though the building which was previously home to the company retains its original name. Theatrical productions are also staged by several community theatre groups, as well as by high school drama students at
Sudbury Secondary School,
Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School,
St. Charles College and
École secondaire Macdonald-Cartier with its troupe Les Draveurs. Postsecondary institutions in the city no longer offer training in theatre, following the closures of Theatre programs at
Thorneloe University in 2020 and
Laurentian University in 2021, as well as the technical production programs at
Collège Boréal and
Cambrian College. is currently home to seven of the city's francophone cultural organizations. In 2021, YES Theatre unveiled plans for the Refettorio, which would convert a vacant lot on Durham Street near the YMCA into an outdoor theatrical and musical performance space. The space opened in August 2023 with a production of
Shakespeare's
Romeo and Juliet.
Place des Arts, a new project to provide a community hub for the city's francophone cultural institutions including a 300-seat concert hall, a 120-seat theatre studio, an art gallery, a bistro, a gift boutique and bookstore, a children's arts center and 10,000 square feet of studio space for artists, began construction in the downtown core in 2019, and opened in 2022.
Festivals Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival, the city's primary annual film festival, has been staged in September each year since 1989. Two smaller specialist film festivals, the
Junction North International Documentary Film Festival for documentary films and the
Queer North Film Festival for
LGBT-themed films, are also held each year. Mainstream commercial films are screened at the
SilverCity theatre complex, which is also the primary venue for most Cinéfest screenings.
Science North is home to an
IMAX theatre which screens a program of IMAX films, the Cavern at Science North hosts some gala screenings during Cinéfest and screens science documentaries during the year, and the
Sudbury Indie Cinema Co-op programs a repertory cinema lineup of independent and international films as well as organizing both the Junction North and Queer North film festivals. In 2021 the Sudbury Indie Cinema Co-op also launched the
Sudbury Outdoor Adventure Reels Film Festival, devoted to wilderness and adventure films, following several years of the city hosting an annual stop on the
Banff Mountain Film Festival's touring circuit, and in 2022 they launched both the Sudbury's Tiny Underground Film Festival (STUFF) for underground and experimental films, and the Sudbury Indie Creature Kon for horror films. The city has hosted an annual
Sudbury Pride festival since 1997. The
Up Here Festival, launched in 2015, blends a program of musical performance with the creation of both
murals and
installation art projects throughout the downtown core, while PlaySmelter, a theatre festival devoted to theatrical and storytelling performances by local writers and actors, was launched in 2013, and is held at various venues in the city including the Sudbury Theatre Centre and Place des Arts. In music, the city is home to the
Northern Lights Festival Boréal and
La Nuit sur l'étang festivals. Sudbury also hosts Northern Ontario's only Japanese cultural Festival, Japan Festival Sudbury. It started in 2019, went on hiatus for two years during the
COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, and returned to Sudbury's Bell Park Amphitheatre on July 16, 2022.
Literature Works of fiction themed or set primarily or partially in Sudbury or its former suburbs include
Robert J. Sawyer's
The Neanderthal Parallax trilogy,
Alistair MacLeod's novel
No Great Mischief,
Paul Quarrington's
Logan in Overtime,
Jean-Marc Dalpé's play
1932, la ville du nickel and his short story collection
Contes sudburois, and
Chloé LaDuchesse's ''L'Incendiare de Sudbury''. The city is also fictionalized as "Chinookville" in several books by American comedy writer
Jack Douglas, and as "Complexity" in
Tomson Highway's musical play
The (Post) Mistress. Noted writers who have lived in Sudbury include playwrights Jean-Marc Dalpé,
Sandra Shamas and
Brigitte Haentjens, poets
Robert Dickson,
Roger Nash,
Gregory Scofield and
Margaret Christakos, fiction writers
Kelley Armstrong,
Sean Costello,
Sarah Selecky,
Matthew Heiti and
Jeffrey Round, poet
Patrice Desbiens, journalist
Mick Lowe and academics
Richard E. Bennett,
Michel Bock,
Rand Dyck,
Graeme S. Mount and
Gary Kinsman. In 2010, the city created the position of
Poet Laureate, with Roger Nash being the first to occupy the role. Subsequent holders of the position have included Daniel Aubin (2012–2013), Thomas Leduc (2014–2015), Kim Fahner (2016–2018),
Chloé LaDuchesse (2018–2020), Vera Constantineau (2020–2022), Kyla Heyming (2022–2024) and
Alex Tétreault (2024–present).
Music performing at the
Northern Lights Festival Boréal. Hosted annually in Sudbury, it is Canada's oldest music festival in continuous operation. Sudbury's most successful artists have predominantly been in the country, folk and country-rock genres. These include
Robert Paquette,
Kate Maki,
Gil Grand,
Kevin Closs,
CANO,
Jake Mathews,
Loma Lyns,
Alex J. Robinson,
Chuck Labelle,
En Bref and
Ox. The
rap rock bands
Project Wyze and
Konflit Dramatik were also based in Sudbury, and
Miriam Linna, who drummed in
the Cramps,
Nervus Rex and
The A-Bones, was born in Sudbury. High-profile concerts take place at the
Sudbury Community Arena, while other touring acts play venues including the Grand Theatre, Knox Hall, and The Towne House.
Bell Park's outdoor Grace Hartman Amphitheatre serves as the primary venue for the
Northern Lights Festival Boréal, and hosts other summer concerts. Concerts are also sometimes staged at
Laurentian University's Fraser Auditorium, although it is also used for theatre shows, stand-up comedy performances and lectures rather than serving as a full-time music venue. In addition to the Northern Lights Festival Boréal, the city is also home to the
Up Here Festival, which blends musical performances by underground and experimental musicians with public
mural projects, and
La Nuit sur l'étang, a festival of francophone music. The local
Sudbury Symphony Orchestra performs regular concerts of
classical music, usually staged in the Sheridan Auditorium at
Sudbury Secondary School but occasionally at other venues. Sudbury is also home to the Blue Saints Drum and Bugle Corps, a youth drum corps active since 1952. One of
Stompin' Tom Connors' most famous songs, "
Sudbury Saturday Night", depicts the hard-drinking, hard-partying social life of
hard rock miners of Sudbury.
Attractions was temporarily moved to the grounds of
Science North while its original and current site was refurbished into
Dynamic Earth.
Science North is an interactive
science museum and
Northern Ontario's most popular tourist attraction with around 288,000 visitors per year (as of 2018). It consists of two snowflake-shaped buildings on the southwestern shore of
Ramsey Lake and just south of the city's downtown core. There is also a former
ice hockey arena on-site, which includes the complex's entrance and an
IMAX theatre. The snowflake buildings are connected by a rock tunnel, which passes through a billion-year-old
geologic fault. Sudbury's mining heritage is reflected in another major tourist attraction,
Dynamic Earth. This interactive science museum focuses principally on geology and mining history exhibitions, and is also home to the
Big Nickel, one of Sudbury's most famous landmarks. The city is also home to the
Greater Sudbury Heritage Museums, a group of historical community museums, and a mining heritage monument overlooking the city's
Bell Park. The
Inco Superstack was the tallest freestanding
chimney in the world at until the construction of the
Ekibastuz GRES-2 Power Station, and is currently the second tallest structure in Canada after the
CN Tower. It is almost the same height as the roof of the
Empire State Building.
Sports . The arena is a multi-purpose arena and the home of the
OHL's
Sudbury Wolves, as well as being a key venue in the television comedy series
Shoresy. Sudbury has many trails that are used year-round, and there are approximately of non-motorized trails in the city. In the winter, The Sudbury Trail Plan grooms almost of trails for
snowmobiles. There is of diverse hiking, biking, and jogging trails found in the
Lake Laurentian Conservation Area near downtown. Other trails link Sudbury to areas outside of the city including the
Trans Canada Trail, which passes through the city, and the
Voyageur Hiking Trail. The city is also home to
Sudbury Downs, a
harness racing track located in
Azilda. There are a number of sports teams located in the city including the
Sudbury Wolves who play at the
Sudbury Community Arena. The Wolves are an
ice hockey team within the
Ontario Hockey League. The
Sudbury Spartans football club have played in the
Northern Football Conference since 1954. Laurentian University participates in the
U Sports league by the Laurentian Voyageurs and the Laurentian Lady Vees. Cambrian College is represented in the
Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association by the Cambrian Golden Shield, and Collège Boréal is represented by the Boréal Vipères. High school students compete in the Sudbury District Secondary School Athletic Association (SDSSAA), which is a division of Northern Ontario Secondary School Athletics (NOSSA). The city hosted the
Pan American Junior Athletics Championships in 1980, the
IAAF World Junior Championships in Athletics in 1988, the
Brier: Canada's annual men's
curling championships in 1953 and 1983, the
2001 Scott Tournament of Hearts: the women's curling championship, and the 2010 Ontario Summer Games. Greater Sudbury hosts a professional basketball team, the
Sudbury Five, who play at the Sudbury Community Arena. The Five are owned by Sudbury Wolves Sports and Entertainment and began play in the
National Basketball League of Canada in November 2018. The Five currently play in the
Basketball Super League. The city is also home to a semi-professional soccer team, the
Sudbury Cyclones, founded in
2024. The men's team gained back-to-back promotions since their first season in
League2 Ontario and will begin play in
League1 Ontario Premier, in the third tier of the
Canadian soccer pyramid, in 2026. ==Infrastructure==