NewsletterAugust 21, 2025

👀 Jeremie of Sickboy's Hali-faves + what's up this weekend

Hey Halifax!

We’ve got a ton of great events for you this week, and we caught up with Sickboy’s Jeremie Saunders for this week’s issue of Halifavourites. If you’re looking for something a little different this weekend, check out the East Coast Inflat-a-Palooza at the Garrison Grounds!

Dig in!

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Vibrancy Festival kicks off Friday night with an incredible lineup of DJs inside the fort on Citadel Hill. It might honestly be the craziest dancefloor experience in the country. There are fewer than 100 weekend passes left, so grab yours today if you want to be there!

Use promo code HALIFAMOUSFRIENDS for 10% off tickets. Get yours here.

Jeremie Saunders co-hosts Sickboy, an award-winning podcast he and his two best friends created in 2015 that makes it okay to laugh about being sick. Saunders is a cystic fibrosis advocate who turned his lifelong condition into a platform that gets people talking about the lighter side of chronic disease and challenging how society views health.

Sickboy is the longest-running and (almost certainly) most successful podcast to be produced out of Halifax, and Jeremie is one of the city’s coolest and most interesting voices. Naturally, we wanted to know what his favourite things in the city are, and he indulged us.

When my friends and I first conceived of the Sickboy podcast — almost a decade ago — the idea wasn’t grandiose, it was simple: being sick sucks, but there’s a lot that’s funny about it, too. We should talk about it.

Jeremie Saunders via PatientVoice.io

We asked Jeremie to share his favourite spots around Halifax for this week’s Halifavourites feature:

Favourite Hang: Propeller Arcade
A neon-soaked fever dream where nostalgia meets some of the best beer in the city. Button-mash Mortal Kombat, hustle pool, or watch sweaty wrestlers body-slam each other through a god-damn table 5 feet from your face. This place is chaos in the best way. Ian Matheson has poured his literal blood, sweat and tears into every ounce of this space and it’s truly one of a kind.

Coffee Shop: Listen
Part coffee shop, part record store, part music lover’s church. DJ Swee built a space where the coffee’s top-tier, the vinyl selection could bankrupt you (in the best way), and every track playing is perfect. It’s cute as hell and dangerously easy to lose an afternoon in.

Fried Chicken: Radish Chicken
The two things I’ve loved most in life: nicotine pouches and Radish Chicken’s fried chicken. By some miracle, I quit nicotine. But nothing (and I mean nothing) will stop my fried chicken habit. To my fellow Newfoundlanders: Radish is Mary Brown’s, if Mary’s secret ingredient was nicotine disguised as chicken grease.

Local Artist: Rich Aucoin
Under Canada’s Special Access Program, doctors can request legal, government-supplied MDMA for psychedelic therapy. But if you need a euphoric group therapy session without the experimental drugs, go to a Rich Aucoin show. Just as effective. Miss him live and you’ve failed Halifax.

Favourite Way To Rot My Teeth: Nick’s Exotic Snacks’ Mystery Box
Once a month my partner and I gamble our dental health on Nick’s Mystery Box. It’s a chaotic grab bag of childhood favourites and bizarre snacks we didn’t know existed. One minute it’s a sugar high, the next it’s questioning all your life choices.

Asian Supermarket: E-Joy Foodmart
Halifax’s Mecca of Ramyun. The only place I’ve scored bags of Nongshim Shin Black (IFKYK). Every aisle is stacked with snacks you didn’t know you needed, and there’s a full K-beauty section so you can hydrate your skin before dehydrating yourself with instant noodles.

Favourite Dance Night: Sauna
Part sweat out your demons, and part spiritual awakening fueled by house, techno, and trance. Sauna is pure, uncut good vibes. Think therapy, but with more bass and less clothing.

Tattoo Artist: Michael Comeau
Half the fun of getting tattooed is shooting the shit with your artist. Michael’s not just a killer tattooer - he’s a sweet human who somehow perfectly translated my 6-year-old nephews’ chaotic “designs” into permanent art. Every glorious imperfection, nailed. Thanks, Michael… I think?

AIFF 2025 is bringing the music to Halifax! From iconic stories like Kiss of the Spider Woman to dance-floor energy in Disco Fever. It’s 8 days of cinema magic you won’t want to miss.

🎟 Sept 10–17 | Tickets on sale now!

⭐️ Song of the Week

East Coast music fans have been singing along to this one at Dave Sampson shows for a while now, and the recorded track does not disappoint. Give this tune a spin and you’ll instantly understand why Dave is one of the most sought-after performers and songwriters in Atlantic Canada and beyond - and why his new album is one of the most anticipated projects from a local artist in the last few years.