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News the John Arcand Fiddle Fest
August 10th - 13th, 2006
For Immediate Release
HOLY FIDDLES & FLAPJACKS BATMAN! THE JOHN ARCAND FIDDLE FEST GREW AGAIN!
August 16, 2006, SASKATOON – the 9th annual John Arcand Fiddle Fest continued its path of exponential growth and success with an almost overwhelming response to an extra day of workshop and entertainment programming. Support for the festival’s established programming over its original three days also grew substantially.
The weather was downright wonky with a mixture of torrential downpours, raging winds, and beautiful sunshine, but Mother Nature’s moodiness didn’t seem to deter festival goers in any way, shape or form. Participation in Thursday’s roster of fiddle workshops and an evening concert – both new offerings this year – was phenomenal, with 293 registrations for workshops and an audience of over 500 for the evening concert. Saturday’s workshop numbers exploded with 590 registrations in fiddle, Red River Jigging, guitar, and piano. To put that growth in perspective, the year 2005 saw 252 workshop registrations and there were 108 in 2004.
“I knew that the demand for training in fiddle music and dance was growing among people from both my Métis culture and non-Métis cultures,” says the festival’s founder John Arcand. “This rate of participation proves that we need to do more to find the resources necessary to develop young musicians and dancers and present their art to the public.”
Arcand’s mandate in founding this festival was to preserve the traditions of fiddle music and dance that are such an important part of the Métis cultural fabric, but were dying with the loss of Elders over time. It seems that John’s most fervent wish to keep the traditions of his heritage alive are coming true. Of the 883 registrations for workshops received in total, 307 were by youth 12 and under. The participants come from a variety of cultural backgrounds.
Saturday and Sunday featured a sanctioned fiddle contest and the Canadian Red River Jigging Championships. A record fifty-four fiddlers – who ranged in age from under ten to over 70 – competed. Winners were declared in a dozen categories on Sunday. Thirty jiggers competed in six categories. The jigging contest culminated in an exciting challenge between the judges’ chosen Men’s first place finisher, Scott Duffee of Saskatoon and second place finisher Ryan Richard of Sandy Bay, Manitoba. After an exhausting 45 changes, Ryan successfully won the challenge by one upping Scott with a 46th step to finish in first place and also to win Overall Grand Champion.
With a variety of concerts and dances packing the house to round out the weekend as well as a fiddles & flapjacks breakfast bright and early on Sunday that drew a record 187 people, organizers consider the 9th Annual John Arcand Fiddle Fest a complete and total success. “Our attendance over the four days went from 2170 in 2005 to 3730 in 2006. That’s about 72% more people,” says Vicki Arcand, the Festival’s Director. “There were times when we wondered where we would put everyone and how we could possibly look after their needs, but they are a great bunch of people and everyone took the challenges resulting from our growth in stride. Many have been with us since the very early days of the festival. They feel like family and they support us every way that they can, including being patient in line ups for food and washrooms or cuddling their chairs closer to their neighbours to make room for more people. We will immediately start the job of preparing for an even larger edition of our festival for 2007 – our 10th anniversary year. We have an interesting road ahead as we find the ways to grow our resources to meet this incredible demand and celebrate this important anniversary.”
Some of the highlights of the festival’s performance line up included a presentation of Métis Square Dancing by the Kikino Northern Lights Dancers of Alberta, Les Cireux d’Semelles, a French Canadian group from Saskatchewan, among many others. The perennial favourite presentation by John Arcand and Friends packed the house for the festival’s largest crowd of the weekend on Saturday Night. Les Moccasins of Manitoba and Bannock Country of Debden provided music for two old time dances that took place Friday and Saturday evenings.
The 10th Annual John Arcand Fiddle Fest will take place August 9-12, 2007 at the Arcand’s acreage just west of Saskatoon.
For more information or to arrange for an interview, please contact:
Patti Gera, Marketing and Publicity Coordinator
verve2 events
306.651.1414
patti@verve2.com
or
Vicki Arcand, Festival Director
John Arcand Fiddle Fest Inc
306.382.0111
windy.acres@sasktel.net
>>>View list of Winners and Finalists
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