Farewell Festival du Voyageur, organizers hopeful for return of full festival next year

Festival du Voyageur has wrapped up after a jam-packed sold-out weekend under sunny skies. Though the gates may be closed at Parc du Voyageur for now, organizers are hopeful for the return of a full-scale festival next year.

A mild weekend brought out thousands of Manitobans to celebrate Festival du Voyageur as it wrapped up its final weekend for the season.

"We completely sold out yesterday and today," said Chantel Vielfaure, director of marketing, communication and sales at the festival.

"With the beautiful weather and everything, and having a park that's outdoors, we were really pleased with all the sales and we're really happy that people wanted to participate."

The 10-day festival, which has just completed its 53rd season, was not without its challenges. After the pandemic forced the festival to cancel in-person events last year, Darrel Nadeau, the executive director of the festival, said this year the festival was able to shift to a hybrid of in-person and virtual events.

"We're just very, very happy and fortunate and lucky to have had people come to festivals in person this year," he said.

"I feel having people in person after a year being virtual and two years of COVID is a success."

But the pandemic was not the only challenge the festival faced.

"This is my fifth festival and I've never seen this much snow and this much cold all at once," Nadeau said.

"Our first weekend was very, very cold, and we still have a lot of festival goers come out even with a blizzard conditions and the wind and the snow."

He said with the mix of online and virtual events, the festival has been able to reach people they have never been able to before.

All 12 concerts from Festival du Voyageur are online on the festival's website and YouTube page. The festival is also hosting a brand new series of Minut Michif online which shares Michif stories.

"We even have a school program where we've reached schools across Canada, all the way up north to Nunavut. Even in Scotland we've had a school sign up for learning about French-Manitoba culture."

The festival was packed for its final weekend. Nadeau said thousands of Manitobans attended the festival at Parc du Voyageur, with hundreds more taking in the concerts at the Centre Culturel Franco-Manitobain or online.

"It's a good warm up for us to return to a full-scale festival hopefully next year."