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Sandra Robichaud is the co-ordinator of the South Slave Friendship Festival, set for August in Fort Smith. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo
Working on positive vibes

Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Tuesday, July 7, 2009

THEBACHA/FORT SMITH - For the second year in a row, Sandra Robichaud is working to create a successful music festival in Fort Smith.

The co-ordinator of the South Slave Friendship Festival said stamina is needed to do the job.

She said her energy comes from the performers from all over the NWT and some from the South.

"You're energized by everyone else's positive vides," she said.

The festival, set for Aug. 13-16, will be celebrating its 21st year.

"This festival is the biggest single event in Fort Smith," noted Robichaud, who begins working for the festival committee at the end of the school year when she finishes one of her other jobs as a substitute teacher.

Beside that, she owns and operates her own business, Whispering Pines Cottages.

Robichaud, 52, said she works for the festival for a number of reasons.

"You live at the end of the road, so you have to create your own entertainment," she noted.

Plus, as a mother of two boys, she wants to create something for her children.

"It's a job that I can bring my kids to," she said, noting that's something very important to a mother.

Last year, her children helped out by running errands, sticking stamps on envelopes and selling merchandise.

Robichaud added she has lived in Fort Smith since 1981.

"This is my home and your home is what you make it," she said.

She noted that, in the past few years, tourism in Fort Smith has not been what it should be, and everything is needed to help the economy.

"This is one positive way of doing it," she said.

Prior to the festival, she has numerous duties to make sure the event is a success – attracting musicians, finding venues, arranging funding, ordering merchandise and much more.

Until the funding comes through from the Town of Fort Smith, donations and other sources, Robichaud often has to pay for some festival expenses herself, such as obtaining a lottery licence.

"And then you have to come up with a theme," she said, noting the theme of this year's festival is Las Vegas, which ties its 21st year to the game of blackjack, also know as 21.

She also oversees about 25 volunteers.

Robichaud, who is taking a 10-day family vacation beginning on July 19, is working to do as much as she can before she goes.

"I'm getting everything done that I possibly can get done," she said.

During the festival, she has to be ready to deal with any issues that arise.

"It's a four-day marathon. It's a good thing I'm a track and field runner," she said, noting that, last year, she competed in several events at the NWT Track and Field Championships in Hay River.

After the festival, she works over the winter on the event's finances. "Since I did it last year, it never sort of left my head," she said.

Aside from her work for the festival, Robichaud, who studied violin for years while growing up in Ontario, was a performer last year.

However, she said she won't be performing this year, because she hasn't been practicing, adding, "Music is a commitment."