St. Albert’s biggest celebration of Métis dance and music fiddles and jigs its way back into town this week.
Some 700 people from across Canada are expected to be at Servus Place this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for the 2018 Métis Spring Festival. Organized by Edmonton’s Métis Child & Family Services Society, the event is a celebration of this city’s Métis heritage, and features a talent show, jigging and fiddling competitions, square-dancing, and crafts.
This is the 10th annual spring festival in St. Albert, said organizer Florence Gaucher, who didn’t have anything special planned for this anniversary. It’s largely the same as it’s been since the start, except there are more out-of-town acts now and the venue is bigger – they’re no longer trying to squeeze over 300 folks into the Kinsmen Banquet Centre.
This year’s festival is being spread out over three days instead of two, Gaucher continued. While the fiddling and jigging contests will happen on the weekend as usual, the talent show has been bumped to Friday night instead of Saturday. Square dancers such as the United Steppers of Winnipeg and the D-Town Steppers of Dauphin, Manitoba, will put on shows each night. Vendors selling Indigenous foods and crafts will also be on site.
Métis fiddle legend Calvin Vollrath has played at the spring festival since the beginning and said he planned to be back again this year.
The festival helps expose more people to Métis music and culture and lets Métis families get together to socialize, he said. It seems to get bigger each year.
“Everybody’s there for the same reason: it’s for the love of the music,” he said.
Vollrath said fiddling and square-dancing seems to be becoming more popular amongst youth, with many new dancers and performers showing up at competitions – a big change from his youth, when he was the only youngster showing up to play at most contests. He credits artists such as Natalie MacMaster and Ashley MacIsaac for making the fiddle cool again. While many young performers like to put their own twists on the old tunes, Vollrath said he makes sure to teach his students to respect the classics.
Gaucher said she hoped these performances would inspire more youth to get into Métis dance and music.
“We don’t want to lose the fact that it is part of who we are.”
The festival is good family entertainment that will get your toes tapping, Vollrath said.
“You’ll leave there happier than when you came.”
Tickets to the festival are $8 for seniors and kids 6 to 12 and $10 for folks 13 and up, Gaucher said. Kids under 6 get in free. Friday’s talent show starts at 7:30 p.m., while the fiddling and jigging competitions start at 1 p.m. on the weekend.
Call Gaucher at 780-452-6100 ext. 227 for details.
