SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Music, performers, art and dance workshops, buskers, food, films and a diamond draw worth $1,600 are just some of the ways Old Town Ramble and Ride will be celebrating the town's cultural and historical district this weekend.

Dr. Tom Pisz drives a horse carriage down McDonald Drive at last year's Old Town Ramble and Ride, past the Dancing Moose Cafe pirate bouncy castle. - NNSL file photo

Emily Smits, festival co-ordinator, says the diamond draw is a major attraction.

"Every year we have a Diamond Passport Program where people go around and get stamps from different businesses, and you can enter for a draw to win a diamond," she said. "This year we're doing a diamond and some other jewelry and lots of prizes ... The diamond has gotten bigger each year and this year it is $1,600 and then also some diamond necklaces and other prizes."

Lisa Seagrave, a festival board member, said the annual event is a celebration of Old Town's unique heritage and how the area has both changed and stayed the same since its founding in the mid-1930s.

"(Old Town) is kind of a well-kept secret and so we love to highlight just everything we have going for us down in Old Town," she said.

"There's amazing businesses and incredible residences and points of interest, historical interest, the float bases, the water. We have everything down there and so we just love to show everybody what we have to offer."

This year will mark the 10th Ramble and Ride event, and Seagrave says it's great to see how the area and the festival has changed.

"Over the years, it's incredible to see how it's grown and thrived in terms of an artist community," said Seagrave. "There's so many little artists' galleries and workshops and things down in Old Town that it's a great place to just to ramble and ride around in and discover."

She explained that the diamond draw is a tradition that dates back to the first festival 10 years ago.

"The City of Yellowknife was very involved in promoting diamonds as Yellowknife is the diamond capital of North America and so the city was our first funder,"she said.

"(For the first festival) they gave us $5,000 and that's all the funding we had and they donated a diamond for the raffle."

This year Dan Duguay, a well-known Calgary-based busker known professionally as Dan the One-Man Band, is also performing.

"It's going to be lots of fun and it's the 10th anniversary. So it's a special year," he said, adding that he is performing on Saturday and Sunday.

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