By Angela Hill

Visiting the Prairies in Ottawa

May 7, 2011 | 7:46 AM

There is a splash of Prairie Culture filling the nation’s capital.

Prairie Scene is a two-week event featuring more than 500 Saskatchewan and Manitoba artists from musicians, actors and choreographers to visual artists, writers and master chefs.

“It was basically Saskatchewan and Manitoba collaborated on every quality they had and brought it to Ottawa, just to show them that is the Prairies and this is what it is like for us,” said Prince Albert’s Donny Parenteau, who was invited to participate in a performance.

“It’s a really neat event.”

He played in a six-person fiddle show in the national Library and Archives building.

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“The Library of Archives, if any musician out there, you’ll know exactly what I am talking about because that’s where you send your product in. When you are done making a CD, they request one of your CDs,” Parenteau said.

Inside is a 400-seat venue, Parenteau said about 380 seats were full.

“You (want to) show them what Saskatchewan can do and why you were selected. So when you get there, the adrenalin takes over and you preform as hard as you can,” he said.

“Every fiddle player had their own style to bring to the show and it was a blast.”

He said the six of them received many compliments and positive responses from the audience.

“And this one gentleman said, ‘I’m a Cape Bretoner and I’ve never seen a show like that before, you have to bring this show out there.’ It’s something we’d love to work on,” Parenteau said.

There was only one rehearsal before the six, usually-independent artists performed together — they just contacted each other about how the show would look and work beforehand.

“I put myself in a seat in the crowd and visualized what should happen. I just relayed all those messages to them and they believed in me and the show worked great,” he said.

Prairie Scene is about presenting a picture of the region – there was a wide variety of talent. Muskoday First Nation’s Eekwol was there as was The Sheepdogs, a Saskatoon band, currently in the running to be on the cover of The Rolling Stone magazine. Also in the city was Dan Walker, from Weczeria Food & Wine in Saskatoon.

ahill@panow.com