Article appeared in the July 21, 2011 issue of the Interlake Spectator…
The small community of Oak Point, north of Winnipeg on Hwy 6, held its 6th annual music festival on Jul. 16 and 17.
Artists at this year’s line-up were Back 40, playing traditional Metis and newer music, with members from Oak Point, St. Laurent, Siglunes, and Winnipeg; Brad Moggie, 2010 Aboriginal Music Award winner for best fiddle music; The St. Ambrose Steppers, a well-travelled eight-member group which has performed across Canada and as far away as the US and France; the Norman Chief Memorial Dancers a high energy group, dancing in a traditional style; Emma Choney, a native of nearby Warren, who was accompanied by band members; Ca Claque, a French dance group who performed in their traditional costumes; Al Desjarlais, popular Metis recording artist; Wayne Allary and Band, a country music group from Woodlands; and the weekend’s headliner, Buckskin and Satin, a Metis Country-Rock group hailing from southern Manitoba.
Entrance to the festival grounds was a bargain at only $10 for adults, and free for children. Camping, for about 100, was free on unserviced lots, but there were flush toilets and hot and cold running water on-site, plans for showers in the future, and possibly an RV park. Food was available at the canteen, which served burgers, dogs, tacos, wings, and ice cream.
“Ten dollars is a steal of a deal. You get in for the day, and you can stay till the night. We don’t force people to buy anything else,” said Glenn Byron, President of the oak Point Community Club, and the festival’s main organizer.
“We want to keep it affordable for people to come out and enjoy cultural music.”
There was a Beer garden on site, and Kiddie rides on “Bouncers” in a separate area near the baseball diamond. A baseball tournament was a part of the festival, with five teams participating.
“Baseball used to be big here. We’re slowly trying to get it back. At one time the Oak Point Community Club used to be a big thing. We tried to bring back what was dead and gone for awhile,” said Byron.
Byron. was inspired about seven years ago to put on the festival. After being away for a number of years, he came back to his home community of Oak Point and joined the community club.
In the beginning, the festival offered a lot of Metis-style music. Now Byron is adding some folk, country, and blue grass music to the mix, although the traditional Metis flavour continues to remain strong, and Byron wants to keep the bands “as local as possible”.
“We don’t want to be stale and have the same type of music all the time,” he said.
The festival, which cost close to $20,000 to put on, was made possible by Federal and Provincial grants in addition to fundraising and volunteer efforts undertaken.
“We did fundraising for the dance floor and stage with old time dances at the community club…All the money raised at the festival goes back into it. The whole thing is to try to make it bigger and bigger,” said Byron.
Seventy-five volunteers directly helped with the festival. This year, a group of students from Stonewall manned the gates in the sweltering heat.
“They’ve been here all day. Kudos to them,” said Byron.
About 1,000 people took in the festival, many of them local, but some coming from as far away as Calgary.
Festival organizers were worried that the serious flooding situation on Lake Manitoba would keep people away this year, even though Oak Point itself was affected very little by flooding. Some diking was done in advance of the festival, but other than that, the 20-acre festival site remained picturesque, with mature Oak trees overlooking the shores of Lake Manitoba from a safe distance.
“We were hoping this would be our banner year, but we will be happy to break even. We were almost considering cancelling it, but we got a lot of grants,” Byron said.
