Two of the North’s biggest festivals are teaming up.
The Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous says it’s forming a partnership with Yellowknife’s Snowking festival, involving everything from joint snow carving ventures to promoting tourism together.
“There are so many different things we can do in future,” the Yukon festival’s executive director, Rachel Morgan, told Moose FM.
“This is a huge opportunity for us to network with people in Yellowknife as well as see how other winter festivals are run.
“I’d like to see our can-can dancers getting the opportunity to go and play on the Snowking stage, and also vice versa – having Snowking, Mr Freeze and other celebrities getting to participate in the Rendezvous event and become a character in our festival as well.”
The Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous, based in Whitehorse, has been running since 1962, while the Snowking winter festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. The Whitehorse event is held in late February, with Snowking following in March.
Read: History of the Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous
Morgan says it makes sense to promoted the two as a combined attraction to tourists – including residents of each city.
“People who live in Whitehorse can go to Yellowknife, and then we’re going to be advertising our 2016 dates for our festival with hopes of having people from Yellowknife come up to Whitehorse to visit and enjoy our festival,” she said.
This year, snow carvers from the Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous took part in Snowking’s first-ever snow carving event. The winner of the Yukon festival’s Rendezvous Queen contest, will be attending this weekend’s Snowking Royal Ball in Yellowknife.
“Snow carving is a huge draw for tourists,” said Morgan.
“Being able to share the wealth of both festivals back and forth is a great opportunity.”
