Alianait festival ‘a success,’ say organizers
Plans in place to launch Inuktitut-fluency badge pilot project in local schools in the fall
James Ungalaq of Igloolik hard-rock band Northern Haze performs an acoustic set at the Storehouse Bar in Iqaluit during the Alianait Arts Festival kickoff jam on June 19. Festival organizers are planning to draft a new multi-year strategic plan in the fall. (Photo by Daron Letts)
The 2026 Alianait Arts Festival attracted an estimated 3,000 attendees in Iqaluit, according to tallies taken by organizers over the four-day event.
The festival ran from June 19 to 21.
Robert Comeau, left, Izaac Wilman, and Qaqqasie Aningmiuq work on a qajaq outside the big-top tent on June 20 at the Alianait Arts Festival. It was one of many interactive cultural displays presented during the four-day Iqaluit festival. (Photo by Mosha Folger)
“We also had hundreds of people check in from all over Nunavut, Nunavik, Greenland, and southern Canada too,” said co-executive director Andrew Morrison Tuesday in a phone interview.
People could watch the festival online via a livestream recorded by a five-member crew from Uvagut TV, the Igloolik-based national Inuktut television channel.
Indigenous performances filled the main stage under the big-top tent day and night over the festival weekend.
“It was a success — flexible and smooth,” Morrison said.
Organizers plan to develop a new, multi-year strategic plan during a retreat to be held in the fall, Morrison said.
The plan will include input from seven youth trainees from Pangnirtung, Igloolik and Iqaluit who worked behind the scenes throughout last month’s festival and in the days leading up to it.
They stage-managed, worked the lights and sound at satellite stages in bars, and wrangled the performers and presenters, Morrison said.
Offstage, organizers launched a pilot project to encourage attendees to speak Inuktitut. Festival-goers were encouraged to wear sealskin badges signifying their level of Inuktitut proficiency: natural sealskin for fluent speakers, red for intermediate, and blue for beginners.
Festival staff plan to replicate that system at ibbschools next semester, Morrison said.
As well, Rankin Inlet drum dancer Christine Tootoo and Iqaluit songwriter Tooma Laisa earned the right to represent Nunavut at the 2026 Pan-ArcticVision, a circumpolar music competition in which 10 performers represent each international Arctic region. The event is scheduled to be streamed online from Tórshavn, in the Faroe Islands, on Oct. 2.
Tootoo and Laisa recorded music for the fall event at Morrison’s home-based recording studio on Tuesday.
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