'All the blood, sweat and tears have been worth it.'

When you're successful, the work never stops.

Organizers of Iqaluit's Alianait Arts Festival are already putting their heads together to plan for next year, after wrapping up their biggest and most successful event yet.

Heather Daley, president of the Alianait organization, said she's filing away ideas for a bigger and better festival next year and will start work soon on finding the money to pay for it.

"This summer I plan to get really serious and do some major funding proposals to Canada Council and a couple of other organizations," Daley said.

Between National Aboriginal Day on June 21 and Canada Day on July 1, Iqalummiut enjoyed concerts, art exhibits, film showings, and a play: a long list of events held in 14 different venues.

Most of the paid admission events sold out, and organizers sold all their festival passes.

The Alianait organization pulled it off with only one paid staff person, who was hired in May to work for about 10 weeks, and more than 150 loyal volunteers.

"It's been an amazing experience. The whole team is just absolutely ecstatic about how well things have gone this year. All the blood, sweat and tears have been worth it," Daley said.

To pay for it all, Alianait received about $250,000 from a variety of government sources, including Heritage Canada, the Government of Nunavut, and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, plus in-kind donations with an estimated value of about $150,000.

For the future, organizers want to build their funding base so they can hire more paid workers to take the burden from their core group of volunteers.

She points out that Yellowknife's Folk on the Rocks festival employs two full-time staff people all year.

And the long-term dream is to see the construction of a performing arts centre in Iqaluit with suitable acoustics.

"We're bringing in really high-quality performers and if we're going to have a quality arts festival we need to put them in a facility where the sound quality is exceptional," Daley said.

That's Alianait's biggest challenge. The best space in Iqaluit for sound is the gym at Aqsarniit school, but its seating capacity is limited. Iqaluit's largest space, the Arctic Winter Games arena, can hold at least 600 people, but its boxy shape and steel walls can turn musical performances into an inaudible mess.

"We're not going to put this festival into the new arena, ever, as long as I'm running it, because the quality of sound is just not there," Daley said.

So next year, organizers hope to acquire a big tent capable of handling 600 people or more that would likely be erected on the parking lot in front of Nakasuk School.

If they can find the money to acquire such a tent, organizers would use it to hold all major concerts and other events.

To raise money for next year's Alianait, organizers will do more than just send applications to funding agencies.

Alianait organizers aren't ready to say who they've been talking to, but they do say they're planning to invite several well-known recording stars to perform fund raising concerts in Iqaluit over the next year.

"We have some big names that are very interested in helping Alianait. So we want to do bigger fund raisers, possibly ticketed concerts back at Aqsarniit," Daley said.

And Daley said that Igloolik's Artcirq circus troupe, one of the big hits at this year's festival, will likely return next year by popular demand.

Other popular Arctic acts included Feat, a young hip hop group from Greenland, and Pamyua, the talented vocal quartet from Alaska and Greenland who combine traditional Inuit music with funk and soul.

"We will not limit ourselves to the circumpolar world but I think the circumpolar world is a perfect scope to look at," Daley said.