Memorial University’s own Nathan Luscombe has been named the Provinces flag-bearer for the upcoming 2025 Canada Summer Games.
The flag-bearer was announced on July 16th, 2025 at the Team N.L. conference held at the PowerPlex, where the team brought out the provinces athletes and unveiled the team colours. This will be Luscombes’s second Canada Games, as he won both a silver and bronze medal in the 2022 Canada Games in Niagara. Luscombe will once again be competing on the men’s swim team.
Luscombe recalled the moment he was asked to represent the province in an interview with Muse reporter Andrew Connors. Luscombe said that when he got the phone call he did not even know the number. Luscombe says that this came as an “incredible shock” and it caught him “completely off guard”.
Luscombe says “to be named flag-bearer is just an incredible honour.” He went on to say that carrying the Newfoundland and Labrador flag at the opening ceremonies in front of all of his friends and family is the thing he is most looking forward to come August.
Luscombe hopes that the experience of having played in the games before will help provide him an edge stating that “the nerves are mostly gone now” since he knows what the atmosphere of the games are like.
He also states that knowing he won medals in his last games has given him the confidence to know that he can do so once again. When asked about his own expectations for the games, Luscombe said that he would like to medal once again, but also said he wants to “have a good time.”
This quote from Reese, an organizer with Tent City for Community, from a recent episode of Muse News resonated with me. The injustices levied towards unhoused people often go unacknowledged by people like myself who enjoy the privilege of a secure living situation.
Secure housing is the foundation upon which our capacity to function and make decisions is based. It is paramount to human flourishing. I believe that Reese, and those who’ve found themselves in a similar situation, deserve a more equitable policy response for their sake, your sake, and the sake of a sustainable society.
As Newfoundlanders and Labradorians we understand the frustrations with the inefficient handling of our healthcare system, I would argue this is impacted by our treatment of unhoused people.
Housing insecurity is directly correlated with both physical and mental health outcomes. The lack of access to housing contributes to the problems in our healthcare system. I rarely see this sentiment in mainstream discourse, but the provision of housing security is healthcare.
In fact, investing in subsidized housing would even decrease spending in other areas of healthcare like emergency services, as well as other sectors such as law enforcement or funding homeless shelters.
As Reese pointed out, homeless shelters are not the answer. Shelters are often a point of alienation and violence for unhoused people and in many places are even avoided by the unhoused population. The answer, provided to us in places like Vienna, Austria, or Finland, is to begin to decommodify our housing sector.
Housing is often used as a financial investment. On a smaller scale, for people’s retirement plans, and on a larger scale individuals and businesses will buy up massive housing stock for profit.
We must decommodify housing. Housing is a necessity just as clean drinking water is and thus its provision needs to be universal. This shouldn’t be a radical opinion, but unfortunately it is.
Given that Canadians on average spend anywhere between 35-50% of their monthly income on housing, if we eliminated (or seriously reduced) that cost, saving for retirement without housing investment would become significantly easier.
What’s been written here is only the tip of the iceberg as far as the benefits of decommodifying housing goes. And if you are still clinging to dominant narratives of “bootstraps” and “personal responsibility” I strongly encourage you to watch the interview with Reese here.
Ultimately, I hope this discussion at least opens the minds of some to the ideas of alternative housing policy that exist outside the contemporary capitalist zeitgeist.
Got an opinion? Submit an Opinion Piece or a Letter to the Editor to the Muse.
It’s been a long road back for Emblem, but on July 12th, 2025, the band reunited on stage once again to open for California band Night Demon. The bill featured the two metal powerhouses as well as Turbo, coming from Halifax, despite a broken guitar to play an unforgettable night at the Rockhouse.
Night Demon are no strangers to St. John’s, playing in the capital several times throughout their career. However, this show was different, as the band is currently touring their ‘Curse of the Damned’ record for the 10 year anniversary. This means the band played the album from start to finish as well as some hits, fan favourites and a cover.
This was one of the most highly anticipated events for metal fans in town and it delivered in every way. Even just walking into the venue and hearing the music before the bands even got up, the feeling was in the air that this was going to be a night to remember.
Turbo took the stage around 8:15pm and ripped through songs like ‘Broke & Ugly’, ‘Alive’, ‘Ignite the Night’, and ‘Down in Mexico’. For those unfamiliar with Turbo, they are a thrash metal band with some harsher vocals reminiscent of David Sanchez from Havok. They have that classic thrash metal look and attitude which is something not seen all that much today. The band put on a fast and aggressive performance setting the tone for the night.
Turbo (Bandcamp)
After Turbo, it was time for something locals have been waiting on for a long time, the return of Emblem. While not having any music out on streaming services, they do have a self titled album, a two song EP, and a single all available on Bandcamp.
Their last release was in January of 2019. Fans would have understood if the band sounded a little off after all the time away from the stage, but Emblem came out and it was like they never left.
The best way to describe Emblem to someone who has never heard them is if the song structures and harmonies of the ‘Powerslave’, ‘The Number of the Beast’, and ‘Piece of Mind’ albums from Iron Maiden were infused with just a touch more thrash.
The set consisted of ‘Soldiers of Steel’, ‘The Exorcist’, ‘Castle of Oak’, and many more as the band played a set of around an hour long. The crowd let the band know how excited they were to see them back on stage chanting “Emblem! Emblem! Emblem!” after almost every song to which the members of the band admitted to getting emotional about it. An outstanding reunion show with hopefully more on the horizon.
Night Demon was easily the loudest, fastest, and most energetic band out of the three. The bands stage presence showed that they knew their music is good. The pits started right from the set opener ‘Screams in the Night’ and continued all the way through the show.
The only break in the album was for them to pay homage to Black Sabbath by breaking out a legendary cover of the first metal song ever written, ‘Black Sabbath’ by Black Sabbath. The energy from the band kept up the entire set list as they played for over an hour.
The band was called back for an encore to which they came back to invite fans to an after party at Lucy’s Bar for Heavy Metal Karaoke before kicking into their closing song ‘Night Demon’. This concluded the show in its entirety with all bands leaving everything on the stage and all fans leaving everything in the pits. With a few shows in town under their belt, metal fans around town hope they will be back again sooner rather than later.
Night Demon (nightdemon.net)
Night Demon also runs a podcast called ‘Night Demon Heavy Metal Podcast’ which airs every Friday and has for the last 259 weeks. The podcast is produced right here in St. John’s and is available on all services. The band also has an exclusive merchandise line including limited splatter vinyls and box sets to help celebrate the 10th anniversary of ‘Cursed of the Damned’ that is available on their website with some limited vinyls and city exclusive shirts available at their shows.
This was one of the best nights in town for any metal head in a very long time. With Emblem back together, Heavy NFLD coming up at the end of the month, and Heavy Metal Karaoke at the end of every month, metal fans around St. John’s have never had it any better.
“If you win your fantasy baseball league will it make you a better guy?” This tongue-in-cheek lyric is among many questions musician Andrew Smith poses with his incredibly earnest alt-country debut album Spent, released June 20.
Inspired by old-school country like Johnny Cash, and contemporary genre-benders MJ Lenderman and Wednesday, Spent marries country elements with the likeness of midwest emo, punk, and rock. On the record, Smith reconciles with his departure from his hometown of Bonavista, and manages existential monotony while developing friendships and relationships in the city.
Smith met his crew a few years ago while working at Fred’s Records in downtown St. John’s, a likely place to befriend musically-inclined folks to be in a band. Like many now-pronounced local acts, Andrew Smith Band’s first show was at Lawnya Vawnya, 3 years ago.
In a full circle moment, the band played the festival again this year just a few weeks before Spent dropped, offering festival attendees a sneak-peek of the incoming record which has been well-loved since its release.
The band also put off two celebratory album release shows. The first at St. John’s music scene hub Peter Easton, complete with a cake, a handmade quilt backdrop for the stage, and supported by some of Smith’s personal favourite acts Ultra Far, Bread Clip, and Owen Finn Band. Fred’s Records saw a free, all-ages show the following day.
Andrew Smith Band playing their release show at Peter Easton // photo by Etta Cessac-Sinclair
Mixing genres, collaboration & finding a ‘sound’
Outside of traditional Newfoundland folk music, and more mainstream rock acts tinged with country elements, you don’t see a lot of experimental alt-country in St. John’s. It’s a hard genre to find here, despite its growing popularity in broader music spheres across North America. Smith however, has cracked the code with Spent, introducing a new spin on the classic genre to the city’s expansive roster of talented artists.
“You definitely don’t get a lot of punk and country mixed in Newfoundland,” Smith said. “When I think of country, there’s different ways of looking at it. There’s more of the folkier side of it that you might see. That it’s kind of gone to the mainstream style now.”
“Otherwise in the local scene there isn’t a whole lot of it. I think it’s just that it didn’t happen on purpose for us.”
All 6 members of Andrew Smith Band hail from different musical backgrounds genre-wise. Lead singer Smith and steel player Lucas Rose are affectionate towards country, drummer Jacob Cherwick and guitarist Liam Ryan have expansive backgrounds playing punk, and math rock, while guitarist and bassist Brayden House and Maria Peddle have experience playing shoegaze and indie rock, among other genres.
This combination of genres lends itself beautifully to the creation of an experimental alt-country record, giving Spent quiet country-ish lulls contrasted with intricate, loud guitar and emo influences, a great mix of genres for people looking to expand their horizons.
Andrew Smith Band playing their release show at Peter Easton // photo by Etta Cessac-Sinclair
Grants for the arts
Smith cited being the recipient of an emerging artist grant from Arts NL as a large contributing factor for producing his first LP exactly the way he wanted to. This grant tangibly gives back to the local music community, supplying new artists with the monetary means to create their debut projects, seeing their visions come to life without significant financial limitations.
This is especially significant since Newfoundland is largely isolated from the rest of Canada, greatly limiting opportunities for musicians.
“There are a lot of loud moments to the album, but there are also a couplereally soft and quiet moments that I feel like we were able to do justice to in the recording process,” he said
“We’re not a huge band, we’re not making a whole lot of money,” Smith commented.
“It’s not like we had a whole lot there to record with. When we got the grant, we were really able to supplement it and record the vocals really nicely and record the guitars, the acoustic instruments, the fiddle and the banjo …the way that we wanted to.”
Smith and his band were able to create vinyl as well, giving fans an opportunity to financially support the band by purchasing a record and fulfilling a lifelong dream of Smith’s – to have his music on vinyl.
Music & community
Smith says the band has come a long way since their debut 3 years ago. All the songs on Spent were written around that time, but he says that as his friendships with his bandmates have progressed, the group’s closeness lends itself well to creating art.
“This album probably could have been done two years ago, but I thought about once something’s done…the fact that it’s permanent and that it you can’t change…I guess I didn’t realize at the time that I was scared of it, but I definitely was,” the band’s frontman said.
“These songs were written like three to four years ago, I would have just been finishing university at that point. So I was still like going home lot. I was still, you know, my summers were spent, my weekends were spent and stuff like that. Just going home to see my friends and my family.”
Letting the record ruminate for a while, and revisiting it repeatedly with bandmates and friends alike has shaped the album into what it is now – a robustly relatable record that is largely about time spent with friendship and community. The album’s reception has been fantastic so far, with many local music fans and old friends reaching out to Smith with nothing but praise.
For Smith, “spent” appears to not denote its typical meaning of being used up or burnt out, rather, time well spent with people and places that matter to him.
Listen to Spent here. Or if you’d rather see it live, catch Andrew Smith Band this Saturday July 19th at the Ship Pub, along with out-of-towners Pillea, a power pop outfit from Toronto, and The McMillan’s Camp Boys, a bluegrass duo from Nova Scotia. $15 at the door and 19+.
F1, the high-octane racing movie directed by Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski and starring Brad Pitt, has been released in theatres, and delivers plenty of thrills for racing fans.
During the production process, real-world racing consistently crossed over with production. F1’s governing body, the FIA, assisted with production of the film. Real F1 drivers and teams appear throughout the film, such as Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, and Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton was additionally a producer on the film. Many of the racing sequences were also adapted from real F1 footage, such as the World Championships in both 2023 and 2024.
Lead actors Brad Pitt and Damson Idris did drive real cars for the movie, but not F1 cars. Instead, they drove slower F2 cars during scenes, which had F1 shells built around them, to make them look like real F1 cars. This does not do anything to dampen the racing thrills this movie holds.
This movie is an audio masterclass, especially when viewed in IMAX, which we would highly recommend. The sound mixing and audio are perfect, between both the roar of the engines on the track, and the moments where the sound drowns out, and all focus is put on the characters. Hans Zimmer’s score may not rank among his best work, but is still great.
The direction is overall solid, really coming to life in the racing scenes. The races are shot in an incredibly engaging way, one that is further enhanced through watching it in the theatre. It does a phenomenal job at making the viewer feel as if they are following these cars at incredibly high speeds.
The cast all perform well in their roles. Brad Pitt is playing Sonny Hayes, who is the typical Brad Pitt character. He’s rough around the edges, plays by his own rules, and doesn’t much care what people think about him. Damson Idris is a standout as hotshot rookie Joshua Pierce, who struggles to take the advice of people around him while chasing social media clicks and the brand.
Kerry Condon plays technical director Kate McKenna, who is responsible for ensuring her team, APXGP, has the best cars possible. Rubén Cervantes, played by Javier Bardem, rounds out the core cast of characters, desperately trying anything he can to hold onto his team.
The plot is very simple, and a bit cliché for decent stretches of runtime, but it serves its purpose of being a vehicle for these characters to clash both on and off the track. The characters are all relatively simple, with most having mostly simple arcs and progression over the course of the lengthy two-and-a-half-hour runtime. The exception to this is Idris’ Joshua Pearce, who changes the most of any character by far, and is definitely the standout of the movie.
At the end of the day, F1 is the kind of movie that knows exactly what it is, and leans into it. It knows it’s not a deep, introspective film and it knows that, so it doesn’t try to be something it’s not. It knows most people probably aren’t watching the race car movie for Oscar-worthy writing or incredibly deep and complex characters. It stays in its lane for the most part, with the audio and visuals being truly remarkable.
We recommend seeing it on the biggest screen if possible, and experiencing all the thrills F1 racing has to offer.
On June 18, 2025, Bannerman Park in St. John’s became home to a landmark in Newfoundland and Labrador’s public memory, a life-sized bronze statue of suffragist Armine Nutting Gosling, who spent her life working for women to have the right to vote.
The work marks two firsts: the first statue of a named woman in the city of St. John’s and the first public statue in the province created by a female artist.
At the heart of this project is welder and sculptor Sheila Coultas, whose creative journey reflects both craftsmanship and conviction.
Coultas began her artistic career in textiles before pursuing welding at the College of the North Atlantic. She described the transition as one guided by “inspired action.”
“It lined up just as I was leaving my job,” she explained. “That felt like a sign. And you know, usually, that’s a good sign that you’re on a path that will work for you. It’s about following a calling to change for whatever reason.”
Her background in textiles continues to shape her sculptural style. “Once you’ve got the form of the body, you have to basically clothe it,” she said. “Welding has seams too. When you’re putting the statue together in bronze, you close up the seams. It’s a different medium, but the thinking is the same.”
Creating the statue came with challenges. Only eight archival photos of Gosling were available: shockingly, four of them were only discovered weeks before work began, and none were in profile. Coultas worked closely with the project’s committee to interpret Gosling’s image while balancing realism, idealism, and symbolism.
“I got lucky,” she admitted. “There was a lot of guesswork involved. But thankfully there weren’t any living people who knew her personally, so I had a little bit of license. Still, I wanted her to be recognizable; I wanted to do justice to her legacy.”
Coultas credits her mother, Frances Ennis, a recipient of the Persons Case Award and a textile artist, as a major influence. “You can imagine the household I grew up in,” she said. “It was very much oriented around women’s rights.”
That upbringing, along with her spiritual beliefs, shaped her approach to the work. “When I was sculpting Gosling, I focused more on the person she was. The divinity she brought to her life and to the lives of the people around her. Her embodiment of femininity mattered more to me than politics.”
Statue of Armine Nutting Gosling in Bannerman Park by Newfoundland Sculptor Sheila Coultas (Michelle Woodfine/The Muse)
Coultas also reflected on the broader arts community in Newfoundland and Labrador: “Newfoundland’s arts community, while vibrant, can be quite exclusive. I’m hoping this project helps open doors a little wider, especially for emerging artists and young women.
“I really hope that having a woman create such a public piece helps artists make a place for themselves in the arts of Newfoundland and Labrador.”
“It’s hard to make art when you’re stuck in the vicious cycle of working to afford the chance to make art in the first place,” she added.
The statue was made possible through more than $300,000 in public donations. Dr. Margot Duley, chair of the Gosling Legacy Project, described the effort as a community-driven campaign with national resonance.
When asked about her artistic influences, Coultas cited Newfoundland mentors: “Gerald Squires was … like talking to Buddha with a paintbrush.” She also credited Morgan MacDonald with teaching her the intricacies of sculpting the human form: “Drawing is one thing. Working in 3D is a whole other thing. You have to get it right, or it just doesn’t look right.”
She also expressed gratitude for her years working at the Newfoundland Bronze Foundry. “I got very lucky in my position at the Bronze Foundry,” she said. “I learned a lot about sculpting figures through that whole process and almost 10 years of working at the Foundry—I got a chance to practice a lot.”
Coultas expressed pride in her contribution: “There’s a deep satisfaction in seeing it complete,” she said. “Especially when I pass Bannerman Park and see people next to it, engaging with it—that’s why I made it the way I did.”
“I wasn’t sure what reception to expect,” she added. “But by the time it was done, it didn’t matter how people saw it—I knew I had done it right.”
Asked who she would like to sculpt next, Coultas said, “Believe it or not, Mary Magdalene comes to mind… My spiritual practice has been taking me into the divine feminine. The church never acknowledged her as something of the divine, and that’s something I’d like to change. If I were to get a chance to do that, I would consider myself the luckiest woman on the planet.”
Sheila Coultas’s statue of Armine Nutting Gosling stands not only as a tribute to a pioneering suffragist who helped millions of women but also as a testament to the first woman who welded history into form, opening a new chapter in Newfoundland and Labrador’s cultural landscape.
For decades, Newfoundland and Labrador has been home to some incredible radio stations: CHMR, VOCM, VOWR, OZFM, CBC — the list goes on. More recently, independent podcasts have been popping up across the province. Here are just a few that you should be following.
Crag n’ Coffee
This new podcast is a fun look into the world of both climbing and coffee. It’s hosted by managers at The Cove Cafe and Climbing Gym Thatcher Flynn, Joel Harvie, and Daniel Alacoque.
If you are interested in the local climbing scene, or passionate about coffee, this is the podcast for you. It is available on Apple Podcasts.
The Indy Broadcast
Hosted by the Editor-in-Chief of The Independent Justin Brake, this podcast “recaps the week’s headlines” and covers reporting from Indy journalists like Heidi Atter, Yumna Iftikhar, and Rhea Rollman.
The podcast covers a broad range of issues in the province, with excellent coverage of Labrador. It is available on Apple Podcasts, and on Youtube.
The Hulk Caesar Show
Steve Sharpe AKA Hulk Caesar and co-hosts Emily Molloy and Dick Strickland bring guests weekly to their downtown studio for an hour of fun conversation and music.
The podcast showcases live performances from local musicians, and guests from media, politics, music, and more. It is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Youtube.
Municipal Monday with Deatra Walsh
On this new podcast from Municipalities NL, Deatra Walsh talks to people “working in or alongside municipal councils.” Anyone with an interest in local politics or who wants to know how municipalities and community organizations tick, this is the podcast for you.
Zach Snow is laser-focused on the NL Music industry and releases weekly interviews.
Snow has interviewed dozens of local artists, and musical professionals and has shown no signs of slowing down. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, and Youtube.
The third Heavy NFLD Fest lineup has been officially announced. The lineup features local bands and others from across the country and will take place between both Corner Brook and St. John’s.
The bands are a variety from across the umbrella metal term including thrash metal, death metal, post hardcore, and even jazz infusion. This is an absolute can’t miss event for any metal fan in the province. Details for all shows are listed below.
Thursday, July 24th, 2025
Before the shows officially begin on July 25th, Heavy Metal Karaoke invites everyone to come to the launch party on Thursday, July 24th. This will be at Lucy’s Bar at 8:00pm and is 19+. Heavy Metal Karaoke is a local event that is normally held on the last Friday of every month at Lucy’s Bar. Always 19+ and always free cover.
Friday, July 25th, 2025
Corner Brook hosts their one and only show of the festival at The Pocket. The show is 19+ with doors opening at 7:30pm. Fans will be watching Newfoundland’s own thrash metal band Paranoia, death metal band IBEX from Moncton, and Ratpiss hailing all the way from Montreal.
Members of Ratpiss Tyler Addey-Jibb, Erin Faeth and Greg Ravengrave (Rose Cormier)
The party gets started in St. John’s at Peter Easton. This event is 19+ with doors opening at 8:00pm. Fans will be take in performances from Jigger, Mourning Shroud, Dark Star Blues Band, Big Space, PUCE, and Fog Coffin.
Saturday, July 26th, 2025
The first all ages event starts the day at The Wonderbolt S.P.A.C.E. with doors opening at 2:30pm. This show sees an all Newfoundland lineup of Bunionectomy, Kaspam Cult, Fisticuffs, Bumper Fucks, Dead Inner Youth, Exorcista and Bad Intent. The event also teases a secret set with the possibility for a second.
That same night, The Black Sheep opens its doors at 8:00pm for another 19+ event. Ratpiss, Paranoia, and IBEX are making the trip from Corner Brook the night before to play once again. The lineup also sees Saskatchewan’s very own post-hardcore band Alien to the Ignorant, Stagnance from Toronto, and Infect Dead from here in St. John’s. This will be the only show of the event where all four of the non Newfoundland bands will play together at the same show.
Alien to the Ignorant (Bandcamp)
Sunday, July 27th, 2025
The only event of the day is also the final event of the festival. The show will once again be an all ages event held at The Wonderbolt S.P.A.C.E. with doors opening at 12:00pm. Ratpiss and IBEX will be playing for the third time of the festival and will be joined by Alien to the Ignorant, Kicker, The Skeats, Everose, Ched, PotatoBug, and The Way East.
People looking to attend the festival can buy weekend passes for $81.21. Individual show tickets will be available at the door of each show.
Five teams from across Newfoundland & Labrador competed in the 2025 Marine Advanced Technology Education Remotely Operated Vehicle (MATE ROV) World Championships in Alpena, Michigan, from June 19-12.
Eastern Edge Robotics, a team of 30 students from Memorial St. John’s campus and the Marine Institute, competed in the Explorer category, the most advanced of the five levels of competition. The team placed third out of 26 teams from nine different countries, its 13th time placing in the top three.
The competition consists of each team creating a submersible in the months before the competition, and controlling it to complete a series of tasks, such as investigating shipwrecks and collecting data on invasive species of sea life.
Individual awards were also awarded. Martha Snelgrove, the CEO of the Eastern Edge team, took home the Martin Klein MATE Mariner Medal, awarded to someone with many traits suitable for a career in the marine sciences, such as a clear and dedicated interest in the field.
Additionally, Kaitlin Healey won the Oceaneering Co-Pilot Award, which is awarded to a skilled ROV pilot who helped guide their team to success.
Eastern Edge was not the only team to make a name for themselves, however. Western Wave Robotics, comprised of students from College of the North Atlantic and the Memorial Campus at Grenfell, placed fourth in the Pioneer class, which is impressive for their first competition in the class. They received an award of their own, the Engineering Presentation Award.
The Ranger category featured several NL teams. Out of the 27 teams in the category, Holy Heart placed 17th, Labrador Straits Academy finished 12th, and Clarenville High School finished 6th. Labrador Straits also received the Technical Documentation Award.
“These teams show that all across Newfoundland and Labrador there are trailblazers learning skills that can be directly applied to industry and learning how to aid the world’s oceans,” said Jadzia Penney, Chief Marketing Officer of Eastern Edge Robotics.
“I think it really shows the passion and the talent for innovation that we have here in Newfoundland and Labrador.”
Team Eastern Edge Robotics at the closing ceremony (MATE/Flickr)
The process of making an ROV is far from simple, and is an incredibly time-consuming process. All components must be decided from the start. “Eastern Edge builds almost the entirety of the ROV in-house using 3D printed and CNC milled components,” said Penney.
“To run the ROV you need more than just the physical product, software has to be written for control and tools need to be created for mission tasks and attached to the ROV. Then comes a great deal of testing to ensure that the entire system functions.”
Everyone works together to make an ROV work, everyone has a role to play, be it building the machine, programming software, marketing, the presentation, or any other part of the competition. It takes everyone to succeed.
“I feel so proud of every one of my teammates, each and every one of them did amazing work and that hard work is what got us on the podium,” said Penney.
The 2026 MATE ROV World Championship will be held at Memorial’s Marine Institute, the third time it has been held there.
St. John’s is the nearest major centre to the wreck of the Titanic, and has been the place of departure of Titanic expeditions for years. This includes the infamous Titan submersible in the summer of 2023. This makes St. John’s a prime location for Titanic Tourism.
In May of 2025, a brand new exhibit on The Titanic the opened its doors on Water Street.
Owned by Titanic diver Larry Daley, the Titanic and Iceberg Exhibit is a place full of information, replicas, models, props from the 1997 James Cameron Titanic film, and even a controllable R.O.V.
When walking down the stairs towards the exhibit, explorers will be greeted with an orchestral version of “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion. This song is on a loop in the exhibit.
General admission at the exhibit costs $17. Entry comes with a boarding pass with the name of either a passenger or crew member that was on the Titanic’s maiden voyage.
Model of bow wreckage (Joshua Williams/The Muse)
The exhibit includes over 40 posters on everything Titanic. One poster explains the origins of the Titanic, and its sister ships the Britannic and the Olympic. Another breaks down the number of passengers who survived, divided by what class they were staying in.
Alongside most of the posters are glass cases that contain artifacts including a replica of one of the three million rivets used in the ship, blueprints of the initial build, and dish sets from each of the three different classes.
The exhibit is divided into three different sections: the main area, the wreck room, and the movie room.
The main area explains how Captain Edward Smith disregarded and ignored nine iceberg warning calls from nearby ships, including six calls on April 14th, the night the ship sank.
The room is filled with props surrounding the ship’s voyage like dishes, menus, and even a poster for the Titanic’s sophomore voyage that never was. This room also features two detailed models of the ship.
The wreck room includes a Titanic movie poster signed by James Cameron and a demonstration of the debris field that surrounds the wreckage. It also includes original footage of the Titanic wreckage captured on one of Larry Daley’s own trips to the wreckage.
Digital R.O.V lets visitors explore the wreckage
The digital R.O.V. allows you to take control of a submersible and explore the bow of the wreckage. You can view this from three different cameras. While the controls are somewhat confusing at first, once you get used to it, it is hard to walk away from.
After exploring the wreckage of the bow, explorers can take a 180 and dissect the model of the wreckage. This model is extremely detailed, from the rusting and growth to the paint job itself.
While the wreck room will grab the attention of the Titanic fanatics, the last room will grab the attention of movie goers and the general public. This room is filled with props from James Cameron’s 1997 Titanic film, including a replica of the legendary heart of the sea jewel held by Rose in the film and a life jacket that was used on set.
Heart of the sea replica (Joshua Williams/The Muse)
The exhibit also includes a floor tile from the Titanic itself. The story behind this is the tile was removed from the ship on its final inspection before its maiden voyage.
Another item is a photo of the Titanic signed by Melvina Dean, the last living survivor from the Titanic. Dean was just two months old on April 12th, 1912. Dean passed away in May of 2009 at the age of 97.
Melvina Dean autograph (Joshua Williams/The Muse)
After walking out of this room you are welcomed back to the main room to some models and descriptions of icebergs, including a model of the ship beside the iceberg that the ship struck to show a size comparison between the two.
At the end of the exhibit there is a wall with the names of all the crew and passengers on the ship. The names of those who survived are written in bold. You can check your boarding pass you received upon entry to see if the name on your pass was one of the lucky 710 people that survived the world’s well known shipwreck. There is also a small gift shop.
The Titanic and Iceberg Exhibit is an absolute must visit for anyone, but especially for those Titanic fanatics out there.
It is open all days of the week with different hours depending on the day of the week and is located at 291 Water Street.
