ARVIAT - The community of Arviat came together in the spirit of song to celebrate the annual Inummariit Music Festival this past month.

Caroline Angalik performs at the Inummariit Music Festival in Arviat this past month. - photo courtesy of the Mikilaaq Centre

Local musicians, as well as performers from across the Kivalliq, Nunavut and southern Canada, took to the stage from Feb. 26-28 to perform at what some are calling one of the biggest music festivals Arviat has hosted in recent years.

Event co-organizer John Main said the three-day festival is usually held during the autumn months.

He said the event was held in February this time around due to concerns over the H1N1 virus.

"We brought in a variety of musicians because we have to be careful not to cater to any one age group or any particular musical taste too much," said Main.

"The musicians were nice enough to come to town and join us, so we had a really nice variety of performers here.

"We had well-known Kivalliq performers such as Charlie Panigoniak and the David Nanorak Band from Repulse Bay.

"We also had Hugh and Ruth Tulurialik of Baker Lake, who play old Carter Family stuff, and they were really great."

Also among the performers were Sam Tutanuak of Rankin Inlet, rockers the Eskiez Band from Iglulik, and Lucas Atagutsiak, who is originally from Arctic Bay, but now residing in Ottawa, Ont.

Main said the performer who travelled the greatest distance to perform in Arviat was Young Black Inuk (Qalingu Napartuk), a Northern Quebec rapper who endured 12 hours of total flying time to appear.

He said the rapper was a big hit with the young people at the festival.

"I don't know if it had something to do with the winter weather, or what, but, even though we were competing with Olympic hockey, we had really, really good crowds at all of the shows.

"Our total attendance for the six shows was around 2,500.

"We packed the Mark Kalluak Hall to the rafters for a few of the shows.

"It was a tremendous event and we couldn't have done it without the help of our main sponsors, like Culture, Elders, Language and Youth, Agnico-Eagle, Areva Resources Canada, the Kivalliq Inuit Association and the Hamlet of Arviat."