The Beaufort Delta region in the Northwest Territories will come alive next month with three music festivals, giving locals many nights to enjoy live music and dance.
The celebrations begin on August 1 and 2 with the 40th annual Midway Lake Music Festival. This event takes place south of Fort McPherson along the Dempster Highway.
Next up is the Arctic Ocean Music Festival in Tuktoyaktuk, scheduled for August 8 and 9. The festival’s organizer and Tuktoyaktuk’s mayor, Erwin Elias, is also a singer. He hopes the festival will encourage new musicians to grow in the community along the Arctic coast.
“People are anticipating it. They’re looking forward to something,” Elias said. “That’s really important, especially these days with mental health challenges.”
He pointed to the long-running Midway Lake festival as a strong example of how music events inspire youth.
“Midway Lake is one of the longest-running festivals in our area. You can see the impact with all the young fiddlers playing today,” Elias added. “It’s because of people organizing events like this.”
The Arctic Ocean festival will feature local and regional musicians. A headline act from southern Canada will also perform, but the name has not been revealed.
August is a good time for festivals, Elias said, because the days begin to get shorter. He hopes live music will help lift people’s spirits.
The final festival takes place in Inuvik from August 15 to 17. The annual Fiddle and Flow Festival started four years ago with support from COVID-19 resilience funding by the federal government.
Now, the event is managed by the Inuvik Community Events Society, a volunteer group. Jackie Challis, a member of the society, said the town of Inuvik still supports the festival, but the volunteers handle the planning.
The festival attracts musicians from across the region, including as far away as Ulukhaktok.
Challis said seeing experienced musicians mentor younger players is why the society keeps the festival going.
“It’s amazing to see youth from Ulukhaktok playing with musicians from McPherson and jamming with people from Inuvik,” she said. “That’s what the festival was meant to be about.”
The three music festivals promise to bring together communities, celebrate local talent, and provide joyful experiences for residents of the Beaufort Delta this August.
