Hého, ready to go

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This article was published 19/01/2024 (647 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Acclaimed Canadian artists K’naan and the Strumbellas will be sharing the stage with more than 150 francophone and anglophone musicians at this year’s Festival du Voyageur.

The 55th annual winter arts and culture event runs Feb. 16 to 25 at Whittier Park and venues across St. Boniface.

Featuring a wide range of national and local talent was a top priority for organizers.

“We want to accurately showcase the diversity that exists here in Winnipeg through our festival and our musicians,” executive director Breanne Lavallée-Heckert says. “Around 60 per cent of our artists self-identified as Indigenous, so we’re super proud to have all of those diverse voices represented.”

K’naan is a Juno Award-winning Somali-Canadian rapper who gained international attention when his song Wavin’ Flag was selected as the 2010 FIFA World Cup anthem. He last performed locally at the 2019 Winnipeg Folk Festival. Ontario folk-rock outfit, the Strumbellas, return to the city after playing the Burt Block Party last summer.

The program also includes local acts the Lytics, Andrina Turenne, Burnstick, Ça Claque!, Alpha Toshineza and Zrada.

Lavallée-Heckert was hired to lead the non-profit francophone organization in July. The Métis Winnipegger and law school graduate spent her youth as a Festival attendee before getting involved in the snow-sculpting program as an adult.

Learning about the inner workings of the event has been an eye-opening experience.

“I shouldn’t have been surprised by the reach of Festival du Voyageur and how many different components and moving parts there are to make this festival happen,” she says. “Everything from thinking about how the fur trade is represented in our education programs to building snow sculptures within the park to deciding what Caribou (a sweet French-Canadian liqueur) and beers we want to have in our tents for festivalgoers.”

New cultural programming includes hide workshops at the park’s winter camp and an Indigenous art gallery. On Louis Riel Day, Feb. 19, the festival will once again be hosting a Métis parade through the grounds, as well as a trilingual panel discussion in French, English and Michif.

“As a francophone organization, Festival has done so much good work to maintain the French language and I think Michif is a language that we need to ensure we’re protecting. If it were not for the fur trade and the history of the voyageurs, we wouldn’t have the Michif language, so it’s a natural fit,” Lavallée-Heckert says.

Festivalgoers will notice some changes to the grounds at Whittier Park. Festival du Voyageur, which leases the land from the city and maintains the buildings within, has removed the fencing and walkway surrounding Fort Gibraltar following the collapse of a raised platform during a school tour last May. A group of 17 elementary students and one teacher from St. John’s-Ravencourt School were sent to hospital.

The high wooden walls surrounding the replica of a historic fur trading post have been replaced with temporary wooden fencing. Most of the buildings on the site will be open and accessible to visitors.

Last year’s timed ticketing structure returns, with separate pricing tiers for daytime and evening attendees. Full festival passes are available at $95 for adults, $65 for teens and seniors and $25 for youth. Children five years old and younger get in free. Those who purchase tickets prior to Jan. 31 will be entered in a contest to win two Air Canada flights.

With less than a month to go before opening day, Festival du Voyageur is looking for more volunteers. Visit heho.ca to submit an application and for a full lineup.

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com

X: @evawasney