Alianait announces 2018 festival line-up

Iqaluit’s annual music fest will host performers from Greenland, Australia and Canada

By NUNATSIAQ NEWS

The Arviat Band has been together for over 20 years. (PHOTO COURTESY OF ALIANAIT)


The Arviat Band has been together for over 20 years. (PHOTO COURTESY OF ALIANAIT)

Miyuki Daorana and Maria Høegh Lyberth are dance students with the Qiajuk Dance Studio in Nuuk. (PHOTO COURTESY OF ALIANAIT)


Miyuki Daorana and Maria Høegh Lyberth are dance students with the Qiajuk Dance Studio in Nuuk. (PHOTO COURTESY OF ALIANAIT)

Iqaluit’s arts festival will host a line-up of 18 groups and performers at its 2018 edition.

Alainait launched its summer line-up this week, announcing acts from Australia and Greenland, St. John’s and Arctic Bay.

This year’s festival will run from June 29 to July 2 in Iqaluit.

Nunavummiut artists will fill much of the 2018 line-up, including Arviat talent Agaatoq and veterans The Arviat Band. Alainait will see a couple of Nunavut newcomers: Lazarus Qattalik of Igloolik and Leetia Kalluk of Arctic Bay, who won first prize in the 2017 Qilaut Song Contest.

Two Greenlandic bands will make the trip across the Davis Strait to play in Iqaluit this summer: alt-rockers Nanook and the Qiajuk Dancers from Nuuk, as well as multidimensional artist Hans Henrik Poulsen of Qeqertarsuaq.

Guitar-drum two-piece band This Way North will make its way north from Australia to play Alainait 2018.

And there will be no shortage of CanCon at the summer festival, from the soulful songs of Dene singer Leela Gilday of Yellowknife, to Halifax banjo player Old Man Luedecke and Juno-nominee and Albertan Cris Derksen.

Newfoundland folk singer Séan McCann, a founding member of Great Big Sea, is also scheduled to play Alainait’s main stage this year, along with the well-known Inuttitut and English folk-pop-rock duo Twin Flames.

The summer festival will once again host a collaboration of Indigenous artists focused around this year’s theme, Dreams, directed by Sylvia Cloutier.

Visit Alainait’s website for a full list of performers.

Concert-goers can buy festival passes online: $90 for adults, $72 for members and $45 for youth aged 13-18.

Share This Story

(0) Comments