Festival fun Five things to check out during Winnipeg’s annual winter party Festival du Voyageur Take 5
By: Ben Waldman and Eva Wasney and Jen Zoratti and Ben Sigurdson Posted: 5:27 PM CST Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026

Take 5: In a regular series, the Free Press explores five great things

Festival du Voyageur is celebrating 57 years of paying homage to the history of francophones, Métis and First Nations in Manitoba.

Headquartered at Whittier Park in St. Boniface, with other events at a host of indoor sites, the festival opens Friday and runs to Feb. 20, featuring a wealth of activities, music and art inspired by the voyageur era of the early 1800s.

Below are five ways to find your joie de vivre during the festival; tickets are available at heho.ca, where you can also download a handy app.

Brûlée beers

There are certain flavours that have long been associated with Festival du Voyageur — think maple taffy on a stick, beaver tails and caribou, that red wine-whisky mix often served in an ice glass.

Now a new hearty winter flavour is landing fireside at Festival in the form of brûlée beers — a beer poked with a red-hot metal rod that’s taken off in popularity locally, with many of Winnipeg’s craft breweries embracing the trend.

While the name is French, brûlée beer is thought to originate in Germany, where it’s called “Bierstacheln” (meaning “beer poking”).

Perhaps created by blacksmiths who wanted less of a chill to their brews in the dead of winter, the drink sees the end of a metal rod heated up in a fire, then carefully dunked into a half-full mug of beer (typically a stout, porter or darker ale).

In addition to warming up the beer a bit, the heat softens the effervescence and creates a toasty, caramelized note to the foam, which rises to fill the empty half of the glass.

Festival du Voyageur has teamed up with the nearby Nonsuch Brewing Co. for the brûlée beer station, which will be available from 8 to 9 p.m. on Feb. 13, 14, 15, 20 and 21.; for $20 guests get a souvenir cup from the Tente des neiges outdoor bar in the park, plus a fill-up with Nonsuch’s Prairie Common or Nonsuch Baltic Porter, and can enjoy the brûlée beer experience for themselves. (Nonsuch also brewed the fest’s official beer, the Festi Beauty lager.)

— Ben Sigurdson

 

Louis Riel Day

There’s no better place to celebrate Louis Riel Day than Festival du Voyageur, where a whole host of special events will be on tap. Catch the come-and-go Bannock Babes drag brunch performances in Maison du Bourgeois and munch on free bannock (while supplies last), then head over to Maison Chaboillez, where a Métis kitchen party honouring the life and legacy of Manitoba’s founding father will be in full swing.

In the evening, Auberge du Violon will host Youth Evening: Generation Louis Riel, highlighting a new generation of Métis artists and fiddlers, including Les Cordes à danser and the Hutlet 2.0 Family.

Festivalgoers can also participate in the Maarsh aek li Michif (Métis parade), check out hide-tanning demonstrations at the winter trading camp and pick up a few keepsakes from Indigenous vendors at the Louis Riel Day Market.

— Jen Zoratti

 

Off-site festivities

Festival du Voyageur fun extends beyond the boundaries of Whittier Park.

Catch music, comedy, competitive jigging and late-night DJ sets at Centre culturel franco-manitobain (340 Provencher Blvd.) this weekend and next. The centre also hosts a range of Métis historical and cultural events, including a cooking party, square dancing and a tribute to Métis leader and Manitoba founder, Louis Riel.

The Wood Tavern (112 Marion St.) becomes the Wise Wolf Trading Post on Saturday and Sunday from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. with performances by Flora Luna, HipShake, Justin Lacroix and Les Barn Boys.

Find more live music at the Riverside (531 St. Mary’s Rd.) featuring after-party shows by Smokebox, Love Letter Writers, Festival Dads, Super Trooper (an ABBA tribute band) and the Coveralls.

Don’t miss the rowdy feats of strength at the Marion Hotel (393 Marion St.) during the annual Voyageur Games, Feb. 16 to 21. Male and female competitors will vie for the podium in leg wrestling, voyageur wrestling, pillow fighting, tug-of-war and log sawing. Think Olympics, but with more plaid. The games kick off on Monday with Battle of the Towns — a contest to see which rural Manitoba town has the strongest resident.

Separate tickets are required for most off-site events. Visit heho.ca for more information.

— Eva Wasney

 

Musique

As you explore Whittier Park, follow your ears and you won’t be disappointed, with seven pop-up concert venues — along with wandering musicians — spread across the grounds. The full, 10-day music schedule is available at heho.ca/en/program/ but here are a few solid picks.

On Friday night, the Tente des Neiges is the place to be if you want to embrace tributes to the Tragically Hip, Heart, Pearl Jam and Creed with arms wide open. Kicking off the evening with a tribute to Fleetwood Mac are local favs Mise en Scene, which release its latest record Drive-Thru Confessional in April.

Not far away, in Tente Forest, indie rockers Strawberry Punch — releasing its second single, Pocket, on Valentine’s Day — will get the ball rolling at 6:15 p.m., followed by local acts French Class, Holy Void and Bland. In from Los Angeles to close the night is electropop artist Will Wiesenfeld, a.k.a Baths, who is the son of Joe Wiesenfeld, an Oscar-winning screenwriter and playwright raised in Winnipeg.

Spend Sunday in Tente Rivière Rouge, where afternoon entertainment for youngsters— Marijo, Micah, TiBert et Douzie and Al Simmons — gives way to a four-act run of local acts Field Guide (7 p.m) and Amos the Kid (8:15 p.m.) followed by Saskatoon soul singer Katie Tupper (9:30 p.m.) and Montreal indie-rockers Tops (11 p.m.).

And if you’re looking to honour Louis Riel in style on Monday, head to the Tentes des Neiges, where the Incredibows of École Seven Oaks Middle School open the day at 10:45 a.m., followed by sets from singer-drummer Co-Co Ray Stevenson, folk-soul singer Ila Barker and her band, and two of Manitoba’s most reliably entertaining ensembles, Red Moon Road and Indian City.

— Ben Waldman

 

Snow Sculptures

Like Christmas, Festival announces its presence a month early with wintery decorations around town. This comes in the charming form of massive snow sculptures — excellent marketing for the festival that fills the imagination with images of a mythical past where voyageurs kept warm jigging while wintry beasts howled outside.

The closer you get to the festival’s heart, usually the more there is to see, with all of Provencher Boulevard coming to life with “tuque and boot” sculptures (which also serve to promote local businesses).

As festival goers head into the festival, they’re greeted by seven imposing sculptures, the frozen fruits of the International Snow Sculpting Symposium with sculptor teams coming from Guatemala, Germany, Japan and France. The festival drops a 3x4x4 metre slab of snow in their laps, and it’s up to them to carve until they’ve set free whatever artistic form they’ve conceived.

Festivalgoers can make their way to Whittier Park on opening weekend to watch the final touches being added to the sculptures; they’re particularly striking at night.

Sculptures forged out of hard-packed powder can also be seen at multiple locations throughout the city: Terracon West, 1333 Kenaston Blvd.; the intersection of Abinojii Mikanah Boulevard and Lagimodière Boulevard; the Royal Canadian Mint, 520 Lagimodiere Blvd.; Terracon East, 1301 Dugald Rd.; intersection of Archibald Street and Provencher Boulevard; Rue St. Joseph and Jibby Street; Canadian Museum for Human Rights, 85 Israel Asper Way; and 450 Broadway.

— Conrad Sweatman