The Pellsqepts Spring Winds Festival, a musical celebration of indigenous culture, is returning to the Shuswap, but at a different location.
The inaugural festival was held in March 2023 at Pierre’s Point, west of Salmon Arm. For its 2024 return, the event will be held at the Splatsin Community Centre on Saturday, March 23.
Secwépemc storyteller Kenthen Thomas, the Salmon Arm Folk Music Society’s (SAFMS) youth and Indigenous coordinator, calls the Splatsin Community Centre the perfect home for Spring Winds, as the facility provides room for up to 1,000 people – and is designed in the shape of a kekuli, the traditional winter pit house.
“The kekuli was where we did our teachings, shared our stories and sang our songs during the long winter months,” said Thomas in an SAFMS media release. “This is how we spent our time until the spring winds, the pellsqepts, brought us back out onto the earth to begin a new cycle around the sun.”
All are invited to attend this annual festival, which brings music, traditional dancing, artisan vendors, food trucks, open stick games, face painting and more to visitors from all backgrounds and walks of life.
Taking the stage this year are Dakelh singer/songwriter Sabina Dennis, contemporary Indigenous rock and hip-hop group The Melawmen Collective, world champion hoop dancer Dallas Arcand, comedian and champion chicken dancer Conway Kootenay, acoustic rockers Horse Funeral, the All My Relations powwow dance group and Rhonda Camille with Secwépemc song and dance.
“We are thrilled to be featuring many artists from our local Secwépemc and Syilx nations in coordination with the SAFMS and ROOTSandBLUES staff,” said Thomas. “This is a showcase to bring the outside world into our communities, into our ‘rez’ and show them what we’re all about.”
Food trucks will be on-site at the festival, while vendors, artists and Secwépemc volunteers and educators share Indigenous ways of knowing and being, reads the release.
The festival gets underway at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 23 at 5767 Old Vernon Road, Enderby.
Admission is free, but donations to the Splatsin Youth Group are encouraged. Visitors are free to come and go throughout the afternoon.
For more information, visit the SAFMS online at rootsandblues.ca.
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