Hé Ho: Le Festival du Voyageur 2013

I know that for most of my southern friends my yearly Festival du Voyageur posts are loved.  This weekend past Darlene and I took in all that Festival had to offer.  From the fiddle music, and meals packed with Bannock, spit pea soup and fresh ham.

The wood fires to warms your bones against the cold, and of course historical re-enactments of life in the 1700’s when this part of Canada was settled.   Any of you who are also using WordPress may have been having trouble with the recient updates in adding pictures.

 

 

 

Related articles

• Winnipeggers brave cold, snow and wind for Festival du Voyageur (metronews.ca)
• Louis Riel celebrated at Festival du Voyageur (cbc.ca)
• Festival du Voyageur wraps up its 44th year (cbc.ca)
• Louis Riel celebrated at Festival du Voyageur (updatednews.ca)
• Manitoba introduces bilingual license plates (metronews.ca)

 

Countdown to Festival du Voyageur 2012

Festival time is almost upon us again my friends and I know how much all of you like my photos of all the festivities that run and all the snow sculptures that are carved lovingly during it’s annual February run.

So once again here’s a sneak peek at some of the work going on around town to get St. Boniface in a Hé Ho frame of mind.  Some of these pictures are continuations of works that had begun last week in my  “A day in the life” photo journal and from “60 years on a hard throne“.

Enjoy.

The Royal Canadian Mint

Here at the mint work has been completed on the Winnipeg Jets Logo Coin.

Here’s the flip side of the coin. A bison standing in relief.  Sadly facing due south so a great deal of the definition has been removed by our unseasonable temperatures.

Some goofball standing in my shot.

Post 200 – Winnipeg: A pictorial day in the life

Wow I can’t believe this is my 200th post here on WordPress. It honestly seems like yesterday when Dar and I jetted off to New York City and through the encouragement of some people on another blog I started my own journey through life on the blogosphere.

It’s hardly been a smooth journey, I’ve lost my father, been kicked out and accepted back home.  We’ve been to countless restaurants and concerts, not to mention Blue Bomber football games and the awesome return of the Winnipeg Jets.

I’ve been kicking around a lot of ideas for today’s post.  I thought about doing many grand things, like telling you about the Winnipeg origins of the worlds most famous spy.  Or perhaps taking you on that grand tour of the Manitoba Legislature that I have been promising since almost the first sentence of my blog in late November of 2009.

Then I got to thinking about what this blog is all about, Winnipeg,  sure I write it and Dar and I get bit parts in my posts but honestly the city and it’s people are the stars.

So that’s what I’m going to focus on today, number 200 will take you on a tour of Winnipeg with pictures on a frosty winters day in February.

I hope you enjoy.

Winnipeg Mint

The sun is just climbing into the early morning sky as we begin our journey at the Winnipeg Mint. Here’s a snow sculpture of the Winnipeg Jets logo.

Three days of above seasonal temperatures and fog has covered everything in a beautiful layer of hoar frost.

Even the flags are silent in the cold winter’s morning

Festival du Voyageur: A Pictorial Post

In my last post I promised all of you a spectacular look at the spectacle that is the Festival du Voyageur international snow sculpture symposium.  Teams come from every corner of the globe to show off their best work to the demanding crowds here in Winnipeg.  Of course one would expect a number of teams from Canada and the northern United States, but would you expect to see teams from China, Spain, Mexico, or Argentina?

Winnipeg supplied the snow and the cold, they supplied the imagination and skill to turn simple snow and ice into a fantasy walk through the festival grounds.  Here for your viewing enjoyment are the best of the best, enjoy.

How they all began.

Awaiting carvers outside the fort.

Park entrance: Sled dogs on the run.

Sled dogs (close up)

Riding the sled.

Sled and riders (front view)

Hé Ho the party is on at Festival.

“Hé Ho, let’s go to festival”,  Darlene said.  Pronounced “Hay Ho” not “Hee Ho”, is just one of the many things a first time visitor to Festival du Voyageur has to learn when navigating the cultural mores that make St. Boniface’s annual winter festival so unique.

That’s right Anglophones leave your English-speaking ways at the gate of Fort Gibraltar, this is a Francophone festivity.  Based loosely on the mid-winter celebrations of the voyageur, this boisterous party celebrates French-Canadian culture and embraces the close bonds of community that only a harsh Canadian winter can bring.

Having won highly coveted tickets to see an invitation only concert by country music recording artist  Shane Yellowbird, we were all set for a night out.  As we left home the temperature was hovering at a balmy -18c but a strong wind decided to play havoc with our plans ensuring that any hardcore partying would have to be done in the relative comfort of one of the event tents set up around Whittier Park.

Having descended back into a deep freeze over the past couple of weeks seemed appropriate for Festival.  Ensuring that all the outdoor events went off without a hitch.  It seems counter intuitive actually wanting frigid temperatures but since so many of the outdoor events are dependant on cold weather not a single soul seemed to mind bundling up before heading out to the park.

Bar de Neige (Snow Bar)