Get jiggy with it

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Kick up your heels at annual celebration of Manitoba’s francophone and Métis history.

Hé Ho!

It's time to pull out your red tuque, moccasins and ceinture fléchée (woven sash) -- or maybe your Keepin' It Riel T-shirt.

The 41st annual Festival du Voyageur kicks off Friday evening with its torchlight parade, street party and fireworks on Provencher, known as the Grand Rendez-Vous on the Boulevard.

It's the same day that a much higher-profile torch -- the Olympic one -- will be grabbing the world's attention in Vancouver.

But festival organizers are confident they can get Manitobans off their Olympic couches to enjoy the 10-day celebration of French-Canadian culture and the fur-trade era, ranked as Western Canada's largest winter festival.

The festival has launched its own competitive games at the new "Voyageur Training Centre" at Voyageur Park (Whittier Park). Everyone will have the chance to participate in challenges such as tug-of-war, leg wrestling, scavenger hunts and quizzes. Costumed employees will explain and referee the contests.

There's even canoe racing -- in two-person canoes on wheels, with paddles used like rafting poles to propel the vessels over the snow course. Executive director Josée Vaillancourt expects that to be one of the most popular games.

Another new activity she describes as "absolutely cool" is a giant ceinture fléchée that will be gradually woven out of red, yellow, green, blue and white ropes. Interpreters will teach visitors how to do a "simplified weave" of the ropes, which will hang from one of the towers at Fort Gibraltar, the park's replica trading post.

For visitors who want to keep an eye on the Olympics, the park's bar has been renamed the Snow Sports Bar. It will have indoor and outdoor big screens tuned to CTV's coverage from Vancouver.

As usual, the park features snow sculptures, artisans, historical re-enactments, an aboriginal encampment, sleigh rides, a snow maze, toboggan slide and snow mountain. There are tours of Fort Gibraltar and there's nearly always live music at the heated tents known as trading posts.

You can refuel with traditional hearty fare such as pea soup, tourtière (meat pie) and sugar pie.

Special events beyond the park include the annual jigging contest (Feb. 20) and fiddling contest (Feb. 21) at the Centre culturel franco-manitobain (CCFM), and the Governor's Ball, a history-themed feast on Feb. 13 at the Fairmont Winnipeg.

Competitive events include the beard-growing contest (Feb. 19 at the CCFM), the Voyageur Games (Feb. 15 to 18 and Feb. 20 at the Club St-B Trading Post, with events such as log-sawing) and the Ultimate Voyageur contest (Feb. 19, 20 and 21 at Fort Gibraltar). The latter challenges two-person teams to live like voyageurs for three days, sleeping in a small cabin and testing their fur trade-era survival abilities.

Here are some more festival highlights:

TOE-TAPPING, SPOON-CLACKING MUSIC

About 70 music and dance acts will entertain at trading posts inside Voyageur Park and beyond. Genres on tap include folk, country, roots, rock, pop, funk, children's and world music. Manitobans in the lineup include Sierra Noble, Eagle and Hawk and Doc Walker. Singer-songwriter legends Bruce Cockburn and Michel Rivard, both on Feb. 17, are among the artists at the TV-series tapings known as Pour un soir seulement (For One Night Only) at the CCFM.

The festival has added two late-night venues, the Garage Café in St. Boniface and the Pyramid Cabaret downtown.

Last year's popular Cajun Night at Club Regent Casino has been expanded to two nights, Feb. 17 and 18. Louisiana's Roddie Romero and the Hub City All-Stars and locals Johnny Cajun will let the good times roll.

PACKAGE EXPERIENCES FOR TOURISTS AND LOCALS

Taking a hint from Folklorama, and aided by funding from the federal government's Economic Action Plan, the festival has established a new 300-seat heated tent called the Poste Pambian at Voyageur Park. It's particularly targeted at tour groups and you must have an advance ticket to enter.

All ticket packages, starting at $18 for adults, include admission to the park, a guaranteed seat for a two-hour variety show of French-Canadian music and dance, and an optional tour of the park.

You can upgrade to a package that includes a French-Canadian buffet-style meal, or a deluxe package that includes the meal and a voyageur sash. Afternoon or dinner shows are offered, with discounts for groups of 10 or more. To make a reservation, call 237-7692 or email packages@festivalvoyageur.mb.ca.

LOUIS RIEL DAY, FEB. 15

Since the holiday Monday named after the great Métis leader was launched two years ago, the idea of marking it by attending the festival has caught on in a big way. "It's our busiest day," says Vaillancourt.

At 10 a.m., there's a procession from the St. Boniface Museum to the Voyageur Park gates. Activities at the park include Métis music, workshops in sash weaving and Métis beading, a play called Red River Conflicts and presentations by Métis singer-storyteller Ted Longbottom.

RENDEZ-VOUS DES CHEFS, FEB. 21

This event proved wildly popular -- serving 4,000 portions of soupe aux pois -- when it was launched last year as a non-competitive cook-off among Winnipeg restaurants. The consensus champ seemed to be Resto Gare, says Vaillancourt.

This year, the public votes to crown the peak pea-soup provider. Soup can be sampled at Fort Gibraltar's Maison du Bourgeois on Feb. 21 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Participating restaurants include Storm Catering, Chez Sophie, Le Garage and the Fairmont Winnipeg.

SNOW SCULPTING

This year's non-competitive International Snow Sculpting Symposium has 14 participating teams representing France, Singapore, Ecuador, Switzerland, the United States, Mexico, Italy and Argentina, as well as four Canadian provinces.

There are also sculptures in the park created during the public snow-sculpting contest (which ends today) or commissioned from local sculptors.

alison.mayes@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 11, 2010 E10