THUNDER BAY – Crowds of residents braved the late June Rain on Saturday to enjoy the stylings of local Indigenous artists at Marina Park.
The second annual Mammawe Summer Festival and Showcase continued to further its goal of promoting inclusion, diversity, and the well-being of all community members this weekend and showcased local talent as well as artists from across the region, while also highlighting the contributions of Indigenous artists in the community.
“We're providing an opportunity for local indigenous performing artists to come together and to share their music and stories,” said Event Co-coordinator David Simard.
The idea for the summer festival was formed based on input from community artists and music producers, the City's Indigenous Relations Office, and community members according to Simard who added that the event had started from the entertainment section of the National Indigenous Peoples Day event in the city.
“And because we have so many, you know, artists and so much talent and so many people that want to perform every year,” he said. “We just felt that we needed our own time and space, and this is what we created.”
Simard said that the event was a great way for all types of local Indigenous talent to show the city what they could do.
“It's such a great opportunity, you know, we have all kinds of ages, all kinds of backgrounds with education, you know, we have some amazing young artists, we have some amazing, you know, established artists in the community,” he said. “So, it's a really good opportunity for everybody to just share their music, share their time, share their stories.”
The event ran from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. and the lineup featured seven local indigenous acts as well as well as presenters Shy-anne Hovorka, Frankie T, and B-Wiz.
With files from TBT News
