By Sarah Wallace

Voices of the North celebrate 25 years

Feb 4, 2017 | 3:00 PM

A Prince Albert Winter Festival staple has reached a major milestone this year. Voices of the North (VOTN) is celebrating its 25 anniversary.

Trina Joseph, treasurer for Musko Entertainment, an organization that produces Voices of the North, said VOTN offers a stage where performers can express First Nations and Métis talent.

“There’s very little places for people to go and perform around the province, and we noticed that there’s so many aboriginal entertainers out there who would be singing in their own communities but they’re not going anywhere,” Joseph said. “We wanted to give them a stage to share that amazing talent.”

Joseph said it’s amazing to see VOTN make it to its 25 anniversary and still have so many performers come out and audition every fall. Auditions have an average turnout of 120 performers, Joseph said.

“Over the 25 years we’ve had over a thousand people come across that stage,” Joseph said. That’s different performers from across Saskatchewan [and] we’ve had some from Manitoba and Alberta as well.”

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VOTN started with a core group of performers, Joseph said, so auditions weren’t required and the event was much smaller. Eventually, she said, VOTN grew as more performers wanted to get involved.

“Now our audition process is kind of crazy. We do it over a full weekend,” Joseph said. “We have people come and do one song. It used to be two songs, but due to overwhelming response with people coming we didn’t have the time.”

The show features fiddlers, traditional drummers, musicians, bands, dancers and singers. Joseph said they don’t have a lot of repeat performers, so every year the show is a little different.

“We have youth involved because there’s so many amazing youth voices and musicians out there too, so we have a couple of spots set aside for youth,” Joseph said.

This year, in light of the 25th anniversary, VOTN will be hosting a ‘Welcome Back Show.’

A survey was recently sent out to see who the public would like to returning to the stage to repeat a previous performance.

Some VOTN performers recently performed in La Loche to mark the anniversary of the 2016 school shooting which left four dead. Joseph said many look at VOTN as healing rather than entertainment.

“It’s been a stage for people who may not have had a stage otherwise, and just that stepping stone to move on to other things,” Joseph said.

VOTN will perform Feb 16-18 at the Prince Albert Exhibition Center during the Winter Festival. Tickets can be picked up at the North West Company or at the door.

swallace@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahthesquid