Toonik Tyme society calls on Iqaluit to help manage spring festival

Toonik Tyme’s igloo-building contest during the April 2013 edition of the festival. (PHOTO BY PETER VARGA)

Organizers of Iqaluit’s Toonik Tyme spring festival have renewed their request to the city to help run the event.

The municipality was the festival’s “central organizing force” in the earlier years of Toonik Tyme’s 49-year history, Chris Scullion, interim president of the Toonik Tyme Society, told city council Nov. 26.

“This coming year, in anticipation of the 50th anniversary in 2015, we would like to have the city actively participate again,” he said.

Toonik Tyme’s 49th festival will run April 11 to April 21 in 2014.

The society first called on the city to help manage future festivals earlier this year, just before the start of the 48th edition.

Janet Brewster, then the president, told council that Toonik Tyme’s organizational support has not kept pace with the festival’s year-over-year growth in attendance and events.

The solution, she said, is to persuade the city to help manage the festival again.

Scullion brought the proposal back to city council, as groundwork for the 49th edition is set to begin with the society’s annual general meeting on Dec. 3.

“Basically, the biggest challenge is making sure we have a consistent board, and to do that, we need to have the city involved,” Scullion told Nunatsiaq News. “We just need more logistical support for planning and preparation.”

At one point, “the city ran the whole show. That was passed over to a volunteer board — the society,” he said.

The interim president told council that the society would like the mayor and perhaps a councillor to sit on the board as well as a city administrator “to facilitate specific event planning.”

Those specific events would include opening and closing ceremonies, talent competitions, and others that involve use of city grounds and facilities.

Scullion added the city could also serve as a good liaison with local businesses.

“We want to make the festival the very best that it can possibly be, for the entire community,” he said.

Toonik Tyme also draws Nunavummiut from the entire region to Iqaluit, he said.

“The City of Iqaluit becomes effectively a focal point for communities throughout the Baffin region,” he said. “People talk about the Toonik Tyme festival with a great deal of excitement.”

City councillors agreed with Scullion’s proposal, some adding that the city’s involvement could also help ensure the festival sticks to its original intent to highlight Inuit traditions and activities unique to the North.

“Going from the 49th to the 50th year, I think we should be celebrating Inuit culture,” said councillor Kenny Bell.

“Whether it be dog teams, igloo-building, things like that, I think Toonik Tyme is a perfect time to showcase that.”

“I was involved in the earlier days of the celebration,” said Coun. Mary Wilman. “I certainly want to be involved in the 50th, especially to ‘Inuktitize’ the events.”

Sponsors and ticket sales fund the annual festival. The city was listed as the second biggest sponsor last year, after Canadian North, followed by four other corporate sponsors and various local businesses and individuals.

Coun. Mark Morrissey encouraged the society to keep pursuing those, adding that large potential sponsors need firm dates on festival timing, well in advance.

Nunavut Tourism “in particular,” he said, needs “at least six months to a year’s notice in advance of the dates on order for them to do anything effectively about it.”

The same goes for the city’s economic development committee, added Morrissey, who is chair of the group.

“The earlier we know, the better.”