Counting on fans for countdown to 60th Festival du Voyageur

Eva Wasney By: Eva Wasney Posted:

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Festival du Voyageur is seeking memories and memorabilia to help celebrate an upcoming milestone anniversary.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/10/2025 (345 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Festival du Voyageur is seeking memories and memorabilia to help celebrate an upcoming milestone anniversary.

Organizers are looking for donations of vintage photos, programs, merch and other items of interest to be displayed during the francophone winter festival’s 60th birthday in 2029.

It’s a project that started at this year’s festival with the debut of L’shed à Léo, a gallery of archival ephemera onsite at Voyageur Park.

SUPPLIED The 2025 display of Festival du Voyageur memorabilia was the start of L’shed à Léo.

SUPPLIED

The 2025 display of Festival du Voyageur memorabilia was the start of L’shed à Léo.

“We went through our basement at the festival office and found a bunch of cool stuff,” says Colin Mackie, director of the festival’s heritage and education programs.

“It really struck a chord with our visitors and longtime volunteers and people involved in the community.”

Anything and everything is on the table, from vinyl records to medals from festival-sponsored sporting events to branded T-shirts.

Fitting donations will also be shared in themed L’shed displays over the next three festivals leading up to the anniversary.

Next year’s gallery will focus on Festival du Voyageur-related art, including music, dance, snow sculptures and crafts; while the 2027 and 2028 iterations will focus on heritage and community, respectively.

In his role, Mackie typically focuses on educating the public and school groups on Voyageur, Indigenous and Franco-Manitoban history. He’s looking forward to turning that focus inward and celebrating the founders, volunteers and supporters of the long-running festival through the displays and an accompanying oral history project.

“The festival is getting kind of historic as well. We have people who have been building Voyageur Park for 25, 30 years and their perspectives are equally important to anyone who’s worn a suit and stood in front of a camera,” Mackie says.

SUPPLIED The colleciton ‘struck a chord with our visitors and longtime volunteers.’

SUPPLIED

The colleciton ‘struck a chord with our visitors and longtime volunteers.’

Donors can drop off their wares at Festival du Voyageur’s main office at 233 Provencher Blvd. and will be asked to fill out a questionnaire for archiving purposes.

The organization is unable to accept loans of items, except in special circumstances.

The 2026 festival takes place Feb. 13 to 22 at Whittier Park. Visit heho.ca for more information.

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com

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Eva Wasney

Eva Wasney
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Eva Wasney covers environmental issues in Manitoba for The Narwhal in partnership with the Winnipeg Free Press. Read more about Eva.

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If you value coverage of Manitoba’s arts scene, help us do more.
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Eva Wasney

Eva Wasney
Reporter

Eva Wasney covers environmental issues in Manitoba for The Narwhal in partnership with the Winnipeg Free Press. Read more about Eva.

Every piece of reporting Eva produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

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