NWT Cultural Festivals and Events

Caribou Carnival in Yellowknife is held annually in March or April and features the the Arctic GrandMaster Competition, a test of bush skills for men and women.

CeltArctic Music Having made Yellowknife their home for many years, the performers and artists listed here use the inspirational setting in Northern Canada to enhance and promote their art.

Enterprise Gateway Jamboree hosts an annual music festival and performing arts showcase.

Folk on the Rocks annually features about 25 performers in all musical genres from around North America and overseas, half of whom are northerners living in or originally from NWT, Yukon or Nunavut.

Great Northern Arts Festival Society (1989)in Inuvik hosts an annual summer venue for visual artists and performers to show and market their work, meet other artists, see different styles of work and learn new techniques.

The Great Northern Arts Festival's "Artist to Market Program" has created a website called Art Roads. This website showcases the NWT and Nunavut artists who have participated in the program at the festival.

Midway Lake Music Festival is held annually during the long weekend in August near Fort McPherson, NWT. A main stage accommodates musicians and storytellers and a dance floor accommodates those who wish to show their steps to traditional Gwich’in jigs, waltzes and square dances.

Open Sky Arts Festival
The Open Sky Creative Society promotes the arts in the Deh Cho region of the Northwest Territories. the society hosts the Open Sky Festival every year the first weekend of July. Festival activities include traditional and contemporary arts displays, live music, public arts workshops, kids crafts activities, theatre and dance.

Pokiak River Festival in Aklavik, NWT sponsors an annual drug and alcohol-free weekend of traditional games, dancing, feasts and entertainment.
Telephone: (867) 978-2340.

Recording Arts Association Northwest Territories (RAANT) annually hosts NWT performing artists at the Bushed Festival in Yellowknife.

Snowking- this Winter Festival in Yellowknife features a Snow Castle and snow scultptures, puppet theatre and other activities and events involving the local arts community.

South Slave Friendship Festival is the largest annual event in the town of Fort Smith, Northwest Territories (NWT), Canada. It brings together musicians from around the NWT and sometimes other northern communities in the Yukon and Nunavut. The Friendship Festival does not have any headliners and anyone willing to give it a go can get up on stage and take the mic. The music at the Friendship Festival covers most modern musical genres, including country, rock, alternative, folk, punk, heavy metal, blues and jazz.

Wood Block Music Festival in Fort Good Hope, NWT coordinates a bi-annual event to encourage and promote local performing artists.

Yellowknife Cultural Crossroads (1999)is an on-site sculpture project conceived and coordinated by the Fédération Franco-TéNOise as a testament to close collaboration among Metis, Dene, Inuvialuit, English Canadian, French Canadian and Quebec cultures and dedicated to all peoples of the North.

Yellowknife Solstice Festival (2003) combines individual Funk Fest, Raven Mad Daze and National Aboriginal Day celebrations in a week-long, family-oriented street soiree.