Festival du Voyageur is thinking inside the (music) box

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This article was published 19/02/2022 (1347 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s a music box that runs on propane rather than a tiny crank to hear the tunes emanating from inside.

The Festival du Voyageur’s Boîte à chansons (music box in French) made its debut Thursday on the eve of the 2022 event.

Dancers and onlookers dressed for the Arctic chill at Fort Gibraltar could see toasty-warm fiddlers inside the bright red mobile concert venue performing jigs and reels, while speakers placed outside the trailer amplified their tunes.

“We see people dancing right now, in front of the Boîte à chansons. We hope when we open (today) there will be many more people dancing in front of it and enjoying live music outside,” Darrel Nadeau, the festival’s executive director, says.

”It’s a COVID legacy, really. It’s something that will be with us for 20 years, built right here in Winnipeg.”

Nadeau and the festival came up with the music-box concept after noticing similar stages at winter carnivals in Quebec. The Boîte’s mobility and adaptability to the pandemic separates it from its predecessors — the large window in the trailer allows spectators to see the band but also keeps them apart, and it can be moved to other locations.

That physical-distancing feature caught the attention of federal officials at the Department of Canadian Heritage, which is the music box’s biggest financial backer.

For musicians, it allows them to perform without Winnipeg’s notorious weather playing havoc with musical instruments, microphones or electronic equipment.

“It was to encourage live music to keep going despite the pandemic conditions, and we feel this achieved that goal perfectly,” Nadeau says.

The Boîte à chansons is reminiscent of a food truck, and that’s no coincidence. The six-metre-long trailer was built by Food Trucks International, a company based in Inkster Industrial Park that has manufactured many of the food trucks that congregate at festivals throughout Manitoba.

The music box wasn’t the only piece of new furniture on display at Fort Gibraltar, the St. Boniface hotspot amid the cold that becomes the Festival du Voyageur’s hub until the event winds up Feb. 27.

In the centre of the fort is the new Infinity Fire, a large meeting place fitted with fire stands that has space for as many as 60 festival-goers seeking a place to warm up and chat with friends.

It gets its name and shape from the infinity symbol that is the centrepiece of the Métis flag. Besides being a winter carnival, Festival du Voyageur also celebrates the histories and cultures of French-Canadian, Métis and Indigenous people.

Festival organizers had to juggle their plans several times since last year’s event, which was held online, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The result is a hybrid event, which mixes outdoor activities during the day at Fort Gibraltar and evening concerts at the Centre culturel franco-manitobain, with online videos and streams, and deliveries of French-Canadian cuisine and festival-themed cocktails that can be enjoyed at home.

Recent changes by the provincial government to how many people can attend an indoor concert allowed the festival to hold shows in front of as many as 400 spectators, some of which have already sold out.

While the weather forecast suggests a chilly reception for the festival’s return, Natalie Thiesen, its president, urged people to warm up to the event, whether in person or at home.

“I have one challenge. Take part in one festival activity that’s new to you,” she said at a kickoff gathering that included about 20 volunteers dressed in voyageur regalia and Métis sashes, as well as Mayor Brian Bowman and Rochelle Squires, the province’s heritage minister, who is also responsible for francophone affairs.

Alan.Small@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @AlanDSmall