Fort Smith (July 26/04) - Vanessa Baron welcomes a challenge. That's the main reason she applied to become co-ordinator of Fort Smith's South Slave Friendship Festival.

"It's the kind of job I always wanted to get into -- high stress, crazy hours and lots of fun," she says.

Vanessa Baron is coordinator of the South Slave Friendship Festival in Fort Smith.

The 18th edition of the music festival is set for Aug. 12-15.

Baron, 21, says she has experience in organizing. Last summer, she was the summer student supervisor at Chief Jimmy Bruneau high school in Rae-Edzo.

"When I'm dedicated to something, I do it," she says. "If it comes right down to it, I'll work all day and all night."

Since she was hired in late June -- about three weeks later than normal -- she admits, "the pressure is on. I feel it."

Her biggest challenge is getting volunteers.

Baron says her relatively young age didn't come up when she was selected as festival co-ordinator, noting that depending on how a person carries responsibility, age is just a number.

"I'm young, but I'm not young and silly," she says.

Baron is a student in general arts and science, with a focus on women's studies, at Mount Royal College in Calgary.

She is originally from Saskatchewan, but has lived in the Northwest Territories most of her life. Her parents are teachers and first went to Rae Lakes and then to Rae-Edzo.

Baron says the more she travels around the world, the more she realizes the unique upbringing she had in the North. She attended Grade 11 in Fort Smith as part of the Western Arctic Leadership Program, and graduated from Paul William Kaeser high school in 2000.

"I don't know what it is about Fort Smith, but the town has a good vibe," Baron says. "People there are pretty cool."

There is amazing musical talent in the North, particularly in Fort Smith, she notes. "Every second kid is playing a guitar in his garage."

While attending school in Fort Smith, Baron sang in the festival one year.

However, she says, "I don't want my voice to be heard singing. I want a voice for the ideas I have."