INUVIK - It'll be a feast for the eyes, ears and most importantly, for the belly.

Friday at 5:30 p.m. we're all invited to leave our worries at the door, stomp off the snow and pile into the Midnight Sun Complex for a night celebrating this life we share.

This year's Inuvik Community Feast is a potluck. There'll be door prizes, dancing, music and games, not to mention feasting. Delores Harley of the Inuvik Community Corporation is helping to organize the feast with prints donated by Northern Images among the many door prizes. - Aaron Beswick/NNSL photo

"It's going to be awesome," said Delores Harley of the Inuvik Community Corporation.

But the organizers of the feast need your help.

"Caribou meat, muktuk, fish, rabbit, geese, salads, breads and bannock, buns, desserts, everything that comes with a feast," Harley listed off foods they hope to see and savour at the feast.

This year there's a change - it's a potluck.

So while organizers dropped off a few turkeys and hams to cooking volunteers, they're expecting a few hundred guests, so everyone's asked to bring something delicious.

"That was the traditional way anyway," said Mary Ann Ross, vice-president of the Gwich'in Tribal Council. "Throughout the year your local community and aboriginal governments work hard for everybody."

Ross said the feast, in its seventh year, was started to help bring the community together and recreate old traditions.

"Back in the days when the communities were smaller and more remote, people would be out on the land for most of the season. So when they came home for Christmas and Easter they celebrated with an old-time dance and a feast and just enjoyed each other's company."

The Gwich'in, Inuvialuit and Metis governments, along with the Town of Inuvik are hosting the feast.

The evening will begin with an elder's prayer, followed by the feast, greetings from invited leaders, games, drummers and dancers, the Ingamo Hall Dance Group, and will end with an old-time dance.

"It'll go as late as people want to stay," said Ross. "Usually it wraps up around 1 a.m."

Who's going to keep us stomping our feet late into the evening?

Naturally, it'll be Inuvik's Good Time Band.

"Everybody knows the Good Time Band," said Ross.

There's no cost at the door, but people are invited to bring a non-perishable food donation for the homeless shelter.

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