Malcolm Gorrill
Northern News Services

Inuvik (July 13/01) - The start of the 13th annual Great Northern Arts Festival is just a few hours away.

Opening ceremonies take place today at 8 p.m. in the festival gallery within the Midnight Sun Recreation Complex, with sales commencing Saturday at noon.

Last Friday morning, festival executive director Tanya Van Valkenburg said things were going as well as they ever had at that point in five years.

With a laugh, artistic director Marilyn Dzaman said that at this stage, the festival takes on a life of its own.

The scene Friday in their office at the rec complex strongly resembled organized chaos, with the phone ringing nonstop and people coming in and out to deliver messages or receive orders.

Van Valkenburg said this year's festival, which will include about 90 artists plus musicians, will be greater than the sum of its parts.

Dzaman said people will be astounded by the music this year.

Entertainment director Bob Mumford agreed, citing the large number of musicians taking part, and the many performances planned.

"Music is such a spontaneous thing. It's live performance," Mumford said. "All we can do is bring in these people and see what happens."

Dzaman pointed out that's the way the entire festival works.

"We bring people together, set the stage as much as we can to make this a wonderful thing, and then the people add their own spirit to it, and it becomes phenomenal."

With a laugh, Van Valkenburg said that things were actually quiet that day compared to what it would be like Wednesday, as by then all their short-term staff would be working.

A big task that was to begin Wednesday was putting artwork in the gallery.

Van Valkenburg pointed out the artwork can't just be put here and there, willy nilly.

"It has to be artistically set up, so it's just an incredible experience, the two days before the festival starts, where we go from basically nothing to creative panic."

Van Valkenburg said she loves unwrapping the artwork when it arrives, and that the process of arranging the gallery properly is well worth it.

"When the gallery is done, I love spending as much time as I can find wandering through, looking at this, looking at that, because every year it's totally different from the year before."

Dzaman agreed. "It's really nice to go in after hours, you know, at 10 or 11 at night, and just sit there."

Both laughed when Van Valkenburg revealed that neither she nor Marilyn are allowed to buy anything this year, "cause we're both moving afterwards, and we can't afford it. So that's what we're not looking forward to."

Last year festival staff spent $20,000 on artwork.