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INUVIK
The 10th annual End of the Road Music Festival took over the town for the weekend.

Rob Shapiro of Hey Romeo plays a few songs with Clint Watson from Triple Threat (not shown) at the open jam at the Mad Trapper on Sunday. - Danielle Sachs/NNSL photo

Live music was piped out of more than just the Mad Trapper as a variety of dances and performances spread to different venues across town.

There were more family friendly activities this year, with comedian Bob Beddow and magician Perry James putting on a show Friday night before the Old Time Dance at Ingamo Hall Friendship Centre.

The music festival continued Saturday afternoon, with performances in Chief Jim Koe Park and the Saturday night gala event at the community hall featuring Louis Goose, New Jersey's Triple Threat and Edmonton's Hey Romeo.

You didn't have to be older than the age of 18 to appreciate the music. A youth dance was held Saturday night.

Sunday afternoon was a little more mellow.

Music events focused on an open-jam session at the Mad Trapper, leaving spare time to cross town for the slo-pitch finals.

The most popular event of the weekend was the gala event Saturday night, according to Don Craik, organizer of the festival.

"We probably had about 130 people show up," he said.

On the other side of the Midnight Sun Complex at the alcohol-free youth dance, turnout was not as good.

"Virtually no one showed up to that," said Craik.

The Old Time Dance at Ingamo Hall was another dry event and Craik said very few people were there.

Craik has been involved in the End of the Road Music Festival since the very beginning. While the concept is still the same, the festival has been scaled back from its earlier incarnations.

"We used to run all day," said Craik. "We'd start Friday evening and continue all day Saturday in the curling rink."

It became too much and it was too expensive to run the festival and pay for acts all day, said Craik. Corporate sponsorship has gone down in the past few years, he said.

This year, the festival had a budget of $45,000, mainly coming from Dowland Contracting, the Town of Inuvik, Heritage Canada and the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

On top of the $45,000, Canadian North donated eight passes from Edmonton to Inuvik to make it easier for performers to travel North of the Arctic Circle.

Craik plans to have a general meeting before the end of the year, where residents can talk about what they would like to see at the 11th End of the Road Festival.

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