Festival embarking on virtual voyage

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This article was published 29/01/2021 (2095 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Oh, what a difference a year makes.

By the quirks of the calendar, Festival du Voyageur was the last major Manitoba festival to hold a usual festival in 2020.

The gates closed at Fort Gibraltar on Feb. 23, just a few weeks before the world, especially the entertainment business, was transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The festival has also become the first major Manitoba event in 2021 to create an event in the midst of the pandemic, and its slate of concerts, outdoor events and the tempting aromas of tourtiére, pea soup and maple syrup will have to be enjoyed by festival-goers at home.

In that way, Festival du Voyageur, which runs Feb. 12-21, will become a sort of canary in the coal mine for Manitoba’s many summer festivals.

“We planned I think five different festivals throughout the year, starting with the normal festival and then peeling back, paying attention to what was financially viable as well,” says Darrel Nadeau, the festival’s executive director.

Nadeau says the festival has maintained 65 per cent of its sponsorship funding from 2020, and it also has received some money from the province’s Safe at Home Manitoba grant program that was announced last December.

Festival organizers spent the year following daily announcements from the province about COVID-19 cases as well as its guidelines on public gatherings. The code-red restrictions announced last November scuttled any hopes for socially-distanced events at Whittier Park in February.

“We seriously thought in December and January having some more outdoor, distanced activities — we saw the river trail open — but we felt it was better for us to concentrate on the virtual format and the responsible thing was to encourage people to enjoy festival from home,” Nadeau says.

That meant its usual assortment of concerts, fiddling and jigging performances are going to held online in 2021. The festival’s only outdoor event will be its annual array of snow sculptures, all 30 of which will be installed across Winnipeg, including on the city’s bike and walking paths.

Festival has organized French-Canadian themed meal kits from Promenade Café and Wine, from single servings to family-sized dinners, that can be ordered and enjoyed from home and festival-inspired cocktail kits — including ice shot glasses — will be supplied by Patent 5 distillery.

“We really worked hard to keep alive as many of our signature elements and traditions Festival is known for and find ways for people to enjoy them from home or online,” Nadeau says.

Instead of setting up its five stages at Whittier Park for about 150 acts like it did last year, the festival will host eight days of free virtual concerts at its Facebook site and YouTube channel. It has signed up one of Manitoba’s fastest rising stars, Faouzia, to headline the RBC Emerging Musician Program on Feb. 19.

“Her career has definitely skyrocketed since she won the RBC Emerging Musician Program in 2016,” Nadeau says. “Festival was one of her first major appearances and we’re glad to have her on board for a virtual concert.”

The festival has been a haven for Manitoba performers — last year’s event showcased 80 per cent Manitoba content — and 2021’s concerts include about 50 Manitoba artists from a variety of musical styles, including Rayannah, Kelly Bado, Ariel Posen, Red Moon Road, Super Duty Tough Work and Sebastian Gaskin.

Voyageur organizers have the advantage of learning from other events that have held virtual performances earlier during the pandemic. They found virtual concerts need a faster pace than in-person concerts and Nadeau says they’ve set up its performances accordingly. Each evening’s show will be about 60 to 90 minutes long and the shows will remain online for those who missed the livestream or want to see them again.

“Each artist is going to do about three songs, and that’s in part we observed there’s a lot of Zoom fatigue, virtual-event fatigue, around the world with everyone have to look at a lot of screens,” he says.”

The beard-growing competition will be taking place on social media in 2021 and young fiddlers and jiggers can submit their entries online for the festival’s traditional fiddling and jigging contest, scheduled for Feb. 20.

The festival will also unveil a video series that will highlight different aspects of francophone and Métis culture. They will range from Minut Michif, which will explore aspects of Métis traditions that live on today, to how to make snow sculptures, French-Canadian foods and even maple taffy at home.

alan.small@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter:@AlanDSmall