By Amy Kenny
All of downtown Whitehorse will serve as event grounds for this year’s Wonderhorse Festival. Or, at least, that’s the vibe they’re going for, says Zach McCann-Armitage, Wonderhorse Emerging Arts & Music Festival’s program coordinator.
That vibe is one of the reasons Wonderhorse introduced an all-day pass for Saturday, when much of the five-day festival’s musical programming takes place. From September 1 to 5, various venues throughout the city will host music as well as visual art exhibitions, performances, workshops and more.
“The start times for concerts are staggered this year too,” says McCann-Armitage. “So there’s always somebody playing and you can come and go from any of our four venues.”
For 2022, those venues include Arts Underground, the Elks Lodge, the basement of the United Church and the Yukon Theatre.
McCann-Armitage says acts include a number of Yukoners, such as Rob Dickson and Ellorie McKnight, as well as out-of-towners like experimental Vancouver pop group, Divorcer, Vancouver-based Devours, and Black Belt Eagle Scout, aka Katherine Paul, an Indigenous grunge musician from Portland.
The Wonderhorse website will be updated in the coming days with a full schedule, but tickets are already available online. Day passes are $30. A full weekend pass, including swag, is $100. The weekend pass also includes access to one of two Haviah Mighty shows taking place in Dawson City (co-presented with KIAC on Thursday, Sept. 1) and Whitehorse (co-presented with the Yukon Arts Centre on Friday, Sept. 2).
For those (slightly) further south, the festival will travel to Carcross for a day on Sunday, Sept. 4. There will be music, DJs, food trucks and a skateboarding competition at the Skate Park and Commons.
Another centrepiece of the Wonderhorse experience is Wondercrawl, which happens on Friday Sept. 2 from 8:30 pm to 12 am along the Whitehorse waterfront. The free event features music, performance, film, installations and visual art.
This year, Northern Front Studio is hosting an exhibition of work from participants of the 2022 Make Something Residency, a two-week remote residency for emerging artists. This year’s residents include Myka Glada and Trista Glada from Faro, Dave Khan from Carmacks, and Sabrina Jin and Page Cowell from Dawson City.
That same night, the Elks Lodge hosts a free-to-attend Battle of the Bands from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm
Additionally, McCann-Armitage says there will be pop-up shows and workshops taking place throughout Whitehorse. Local artist Asia Hyde will be painting a mural on the exterior wall of Road Dogs Music. There will be an end-of-festival BBQ at Shipyards Park from 12 pm to 4 pm on Monday, Sept. 5.
Visit wonderhorsefestival.com for more information and updates as they come out.
