Inuvik (Apr 10/06) - Inuvik's End of the Road Festival may be four months away, but meetings and plans are already underway for the newly-incorporated event's third year.

Fred Penner performs at last year's End of the Road Festival in Inuvik. A festival society has been created to run the annual event this year. - NNSL file photo

The creation of an End of the Road Festival Society was one of the developments that came out of the event's annual general meeting, which took place April 4 at Aurora College.

"It opens a lot of doors for us," said entertainment committee chairman Don Craik. He said incorporating the music festival opens it up to additional sources of funding and gives them more freedom outside of the town's jurisdiction.

For the last two years, the festival has been run by the Town of Inuvik, which was responsible for all the associated fundraising and costs. However, Craik said the society still works closely with the town.

"We're not so dependent on the town," he said, "even though we do appreciate everything they do for us."

Several executive positions were also filled at the meeting, including the vice-president and several committee heads.

The role of president was also filled, Craik said, though he didn't want to reveal the name of the lucky person, who was elected despite not attending the meeting.

"I don't want to tell you until he accepts," he said with a chuckle.

Events co-ordinator with the Town of Inuvik Dave Rogers said he "wouldn't even want to speculate" on the line-up at this point, as the festival has yet to put out its general call for performers.

Interest is still high, however.

"I have a stack of CDs from people here and we don't even have a sign-up yet," he said.

The applications are coming from all over Western Canada, he said, and he hopes to start looking at acts soon.

This year's festival takes place Aug. 25-27.

Last year, Fred Penner and Corb Lund were among a long list of performers at the well-attended festival.by Adam Johnson

Northern News Services

Inuvik