Festival’s 45th year features a Manitoba-heavy musical lineup that’s its biggest ever

Advertisement

Advertise with us

Few things inspire joie de vivre quite like live music.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/02/2014 (4596 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

wfpvideo:3198030699001:wfpvideo

Few things inspire joie de vivre quite like live music.

And so, in the kitchen-party spirit of Festival du Voyageur, more than 130 acts will take stages across Winnipeg’s French Quarter over the course of the 10-day event, which kicks off today and runs until Feb. 23.

The genre-spanning lineup features the best francophone and anglophone acts Manitoba has to offer, including recent Juno nominees Royal Canoe, Don Amero, Sierra Noble, áa Claque!, the Lytics, collage–trois, Claire Morrison, Red Moon Road, Crooked Brothers, Patti Lamoureux, the F-Holes, Sweet Alibi, Boats, Daniel Roa, Indian City and many more.

TREVOR HAGAN/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Marie-Phillipe Bergeron performs in one of the tents at the Festival du Voyageur, Saturday, February 16, 2013.
TREVOR HAGAN/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Marie-Phillipe Bergeron performs in one of the tents at the Festival du Voyageur, Saturday, February 16, 2013.

Now in its 45th year, Western Canada’s largest winter festival has steadily built a strong reputation for the quality and breadth of its local music programming. (Festival du Voyageur is even sponsoring the Francophone Album of the Year award at next month’s Juno Awards.)

“It’s grown every single year, and this year’s is the biggest lineup ever,” says Julien Desaulniers, artistic producer for Festival du Voyageur.

“We feature more Manitoba acts than any other Manitoba festival.”

Desaulniers is consistently impressed by the pool of talent he has to pull from, referencing a stat from Richard Florida’s Who’s Your City?: How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life. “Winnipeg makes up 2.25 per cent of the country’s population, but it’s home to 12 per cent of Canada’s musicians.”

Many of Manitoba’s brightest francophone acts got their start on Festival du Voyageur stages, including franco-folk luminaries Oh My Darling and the buzzed-about Dugas (brother-and-sister duo Christian and Sarah Dugas), who are both performing at the festival.

The festival has a rich history of musical community-building; the Radio-Canada television series Pour un soir seulement — which pairs up acclaimed francophone artists for special one-off concerts — has held tapings at the Centre culturel franco-manitobain during the festival for the past seven years.

This year, Manitoba Music has teamed up with Festival du Voyageur for a new industry event. The inaugural Rame la rencontre will include two showcases for up-and-coming francophone artists from Western Canada, as well as an afternoon industry panel and networking opportunities to help them expand their careers.

Manitoba artists Jocelyne Baribeau, Justin Lacroix and Marijosée will be performing at Promenade Cafe and Wine on Feb. 21. Alberta’s Rapha´l Freynet, and Saskatchewan’s Shawn Jobin and Anique Granger will perform Feb. 22 at Le Garage Café. The showcases are open to the public.

Joel Couture, Manitoba Music’s francophone music program co-ordinator, says the event offers the Franco-Manitoban music community an opportunity to connect with industry tastemakers and learn about the business of breaking into other markets — particularly Quebec, home to the country’s most robust francophone music industry.

“We want to strengthen the relationship between the west and Quebec,” he says. “It’s important to get these two groups to meet.”

And there’s no better meeting place than Festival du Voyageur.

“Most of the delegates who are coming are from Quebec and they’re excited,” Couture says. “They’ve heard of the festival because they’ve had artists who have played it.”

For the complete festival lineup, set times and venue information, visit festivalvoyageur.mb.ca.

 

jen.zoratti@freepress.mb.ca

Jen Zoratti

Jen Zoratti
Columnist

Jen Zoratti is a columnist and feature writer working in the Arts & Life department, as well as the author of the weekly newsletter NEXT. A National Newspaper Award finalist for arts and entertainment writing, Jen is a graduate of the Creative Communications program at RRC Polytech and was a music writer before joining the Free Press in 2013. Read more about Jen.

Every piece of reporting Jen 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.

History

Updated on Friday, February 14, 2014 8:37 AM CST: Changes headline

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Menstruation, consent move up in sex-ed lesson plan

Maggie Macintosh 5 minute read Preview

Menstruation, consent move up in sex-ed lesson plan

Maggie Macintosh 5 minute read Yesterday at 6:00 AM CDT

Manitoba’s newest curriculum introduces the menstrual cycle earlier and repeatedly calls for explicit lessons on how students can give, seek, and decline to provide their consent.

The education department has released its sweeping proposal to overhaul how exercise, nutrition and sexuality are taught between kindergarten and Grade 12.

Grade 5 has long served as a key turning point for “the talk,” said J Fiedler, a sexual and reproductive health educator who provided input on the new curriculum.

“There’s no ‘the talk’ anymore. Now, there’s continuations of multiple ‘talks,’ which can hopefully reduce stress for students and stigma that people experience talking about sexuality.”

Read
Yesterday at 6:00 AM CDT

Winnipeg venues saying no to AI-made advertisements

Sheldon Birnie 8 minute read Preview

Winnipeg venues saying no to AI-made advertisements

Sheldon Birnie 8 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 10:22 AM CDT

Although the days when telephone poles and notice boards across the city were thick with gig posters, either slopped up with wheat paste or wrapped tight with packing tape, are behind us, the art of making an appealing visual ad for live music events is still a vital part of the local creative scene.

However, a widespread backlash against a new kind of slop — the use of generative AI images — has been building, especially among creatives when it comes to promoting live music.

“Live music is and always has been a DIY type of scene, especially locally,” says Evan Simpson, who has been working as a graphic designer for nearly a decade.

“For years people have been making their own flyers, or if they have the budget, hiring a designer or artist to come up with some artwork for their flyers. It’s a whole ecosystem, a scene supporting itself. If you take away the visual side of it, the spark, individuality and uniqueness of each gig poster is lost. What a sad world it would be if all art were made by AI.”

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 10:22 AM CDT

Today’s horoscope

Georgia Nicols 4 minute read Preview

Today’s horoscope

Georgia Nicols 4 minute read 2:00 AM CDT

MOON ALERT: Avoid shopping or making important decisions after 10 p.m. today. The moon is in Scorpio.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

Feelings of obsession might grip you when dealing with shared property, banking issues or something to do with taxes or inheritances. Your strong opinions might make it difficult to co-operate with others or agree to anything. Be aware of this.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

Read
2:00 AM CDT

Man, 21, killed in animal attack on Manitoba First Nation

Chris Kitching 5 minute read Preview

Man, 21, killed in animal attack on Manitoba First Nation

Chris Kitching 5 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 8:18 PM CDT

The family of “a kind and gentle giant” is grief-stricken as officials try to determine what kind of animal killed the 21-year-old man in western Manitoba.

Moses Campeau was walking on a road to a friend’s house in Sapotaweyak Cree Nation, about 600 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, when he was fatally injured Sept. 9, his mother, Paula Campeau, said Monday.

“Moses was a kind and gentle giant,” she said. “He was a person who (people) would ask to come and help them, and he would go without even hesitating.”

Manitoba RCMP said officers from the Swan River detachment responded to a report of a suspicious death at about 3:10 a.m. The scene was held and the RCMP’s major crime services took over the investigation.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 8:18 PM CDT

Letters, Sept. 14

7 minute read Preview

Letters, Sept. 14

7 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 8:14 AM CDT

Worth it for who? Our transit system has been undergoing growing pains for the past year, ever since city staff completely messed up the system with their redesign.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 8:14 AM CDT

Finding fulfilment as canines’ companion

AV Kitching 9 minute read Preview

Finding fulfilment as canines’ companion

AV Kitching 9 minute read Yesterday at 6:00 AM CDT

Tim Campbell loves dogs. He loves them so much that as soon he retired from his job at Panasonic Canada in early 2024 he began volunteering in earnest at the Winnipeg Humane Society (WHS).

He’d started his voluntary career five years prior with another local dog rescue organization. The work was rewarding, he says but the call-outs were unpredictable.

He was looking for a voluntary role which had a bit more structure to it, something he could build a routine around, while spending time with the animals he truly adores.

“In the summer, I’m there two mornings a week, and when the weather turns a little colder, I’m there anywhere from three to four mornings, depending on what’s going on,” Campbell, 59, explains.

Read
Yesterday at 6:00 AM CDT