Long Easter weekend opens enlarged Toonik Tyme festival

Hannah Kiguktak works fast at the Toonik Tyme festival’s tea and bannock contest, April 4 in Iqaluit, as her daughter Hailey looks on. (PHOTO BY PETER VARGA)

Solomon Awa, organizer for the Toonik Tyme festival’s traditional games in Iqaluit touches up his igloo, April 6, after the igloo-building contest. (PHOTO BY PETER VARGA)

Iqaluit’s 50th Toonik Tyme festival delivered a long Easter weekend full of open-air festivities and contests that seemed perfectly timed for warmer, sunny weather.

The festival’s opening weekend also drew capacity audiences indoors to opening ceremonies, April 2, and this year’s highlight concert, April 3, which featured Ottawa-based band, A Tribe Called Red.

Easter Monday, April 6, closed the weekend with open-air fun, and opened the start of another week that promises even more.

“Everybody’s out there having a great time,” said festival president Travis Cooper. “We couldn’t have asked for better participation or better weather.”

The festival’s opening days featured a crafts fair, country foods sale and long-running favourite contests. Ice sculpting drew a tight crowd to Nakasuk elementary chool field, April 4, which was the site of traditional Inuit games throughout the afternoon. Jacoposee Tiglik took the top prize for his ice sculpture, featuring sea mammals. Shortly after, tea and bannock-making experts demonstrated their best and quickest preparations in an open-air contest.

Meanwhile, Inuit games expert Solomon Awa invited festival-goers to try their hand and compete in traditional contests such as whip-cracking and lance-throwing. Awa also demonstrated a blanket toss, practiced by the Inupiat people of Alaska, which threw willing participants high into the air.

The traditional dog team race the next day drew five dog teams. The winning drivers, Mike DeMaio and daughter Rosalie, finished the race in a record time of two hours and 39 minutes, organizer Amy Elgersma reported.

Igloo-building, another traditional staple since the start of Toonik Tyme in 1965, drew a large crowd of spectators to the usual spot behind the courthouse on Easter Monday. Traditional games organizer Awa returned the event to its roots, insisting that teams of igloo-builders, not individuals, work in pairs to build their igloo — as is common on the land.

“It’s usually done that way, unless you’re travelling alone,” he said.

Louis-Philip Pothier and Fernando Castaneda Bucci finished ahead of seven other teams, earning the top prize of $1,500 and a return ticket with Canadian North.

Out on the sea ice earlier that day, cross-country ski enthusiasts of all ages gathered for a friendly competition, which included prizes for the fastest skier and best costume.

The sea ice will be the site of more intense skidoo races this month. Cooper said preparations are underway for the Iqaluit-Kimmirut race on April 11, following the successful return of the event last year, after a hiatus of several years.

“This is a large event that the two communities love sharing. It brings us together, even through we’re a long distance away from each other,” Cooper said.

Participants must pay an entry fee of $350 to register. The top three winners will earn large cash prizes – yet to be determined, Cooper said April 6. Organizers are raising prize money from corporate donations and $20 raffle tickets for a qamutik loaded with camping gear.

The winning ticket will be drawn at the festival’s Closing Community Feast, April 9. The community feast will celebrate Toonik Tyme’s eastern Arctic cultural roots with food, music, and a fashion show featuring traditional and contemporary northern clothing by Nunavut designers.

Iqaluit band Kamaalukutaat, headed by Gideonie Joamie, will play a mix of traditional Inuktitut songs at the feast.

Although the “Closing Community Feast” and “Wrap-up Concert” listed for the following night suggest the festival ends April 10, Toonik Tyme will continue with other “Post Toonik Tyme” events, April 11 through to April 19.

“It’s still going on,” Cooper laughed. “Things just kept coming up, and we wanted to fit everything in.”

The weekend of April 11 leads off with the Kimmirut skidoo race, and a full slate of other events such as a geocache scavenger hunt, a family ice fishing derby, and the Rotary pancake breakfast on Sunday morning. An Iqaluit Amateur Ice Hockey Association tournament and a basketball tournament close April 12. A third and final week of activities follows with the Toonik Tyme men’s senior hockey tournament, April 15 to April 19, and Snowmobile drag races are set for the 18th.

See the festival’s website and facebook page for updates to schedules.