Toonik Tyme group gives up, Town takes over ailing festival

The organizing committee for Iqaluit’s annual Toonik Tyme festival resigned this week, putting the future of Toonik Tyme in jeopardy.

In a letter to Iqaluit Mayor John Matthews this week, Shani Watts, the festival’s president, said a lack of volunteer support has forced organizers to “throw the ball back” to the Town of Iqaluit.

Watts said they have called four meetings to plan the 2001 event, but only one volunteer attended.

Watts also blamed Nunavut Tourism, the Baffin Chamber of Commerce and the Town itself for failing to provide enough help to plan and pay for the festival.

Founded in 1965, Toonik Tyme usuall runs for about a week in April, and involves Inuit traditional games, dances, musical performances, dog-team and snowmobile races, and community feasts. In past years, the event has attracted visitors from around the world.

David Serkoak, the festival’s vice-president, said in the first few years of his involvement with Toonik Tyme, many people — both Inuit and Qallunaat — pitched in to make the festival work.

That hasn’t been the case in recent years.

“It benefits everyone at the end, but everybody doesn’t help in [the] planning stages or give money to make it run,” Serkoak said.

“I guess one of the hardest things is trying to raise money — bingo after bingo after bingo — and also writing proposals trying to get money from federal and territorial governments,” he said.

Iqaluit Mayor John Matthews this week said the Town of Iqaluit will take over responsibility for Toonik Tyme. He said Marlene Quinton of the Town’s recreation department has been appointed to organize this year’s festival.

The Town gives $10,000 toward the Toonik Tyme budget and the rest is raised independently, Matthews said. The budget for the event is around $50,000.

Quinton said that in the next few weeks she will make a list of events and put a budget together. She said she doesn’t know how much money is in the coffers for the event now, but will find out soon.

Matthews said he thanks members of the organizing committee for the hard work they’ve done over the years. He said he hopes another committee will be formed in the future to carry on the the festival.

Serkoak suggested that if Toonik Tyme is to continue, it should be re-evaluated in the light of how it was in the past. He worries that Toonik Tyme is losing some of its cultural value, and said there’s been a shift away from the small-town atmosphere of the event.

Bryan Pearson, one of the founders of Toonik Tyme, had similar concerns.

He said the festival was started to encourage tourism in Iqaluit. For years, he said, Inuit cultural games were the highlight of the event, but recently the festival has lost much its unique Inuit flavor.

But, Pearson said philosophically, “Nothing lasts forever.”