By Lauren McKeon

I wish I were in Iqaluit right now. While the North has many wonderful summer festivals, nothing is quite like Alianait. Each year, festival organizers bring together the best of Inuit culture, Canadian culture, and, pretty much whatever other world culture they feel like. Take this year: Closing out the festival are Mighty Popo (a Rwandan/Burundian refugee and survivor); group Caravan of Thieves (Roma music); Jaffa Road (Jewish, Indian, and Arabic); and Galitcha (Indian folk) – to name a few. Plus, there’s the circus – world famous Igloolik-based Artcirq – which is not something any Northerner should ever miss. Oh, and, the fact that the entire thing is held in a big top circus tent.

Sadly, I am not in Iqaluit – and neither are a lot of other people. Unlike its summer festival counterparts in the NWT and Yukon, Alianait doesn’t draw much of an outside crowd. This really is too bad. In addition to an unmatched world flavour (as far as Northern festivals go), the 10-day arts fest offers a genuine – in other words, not hokey – peek into modern and traditional Inuit culture: storytelling, art, movies, food ... OK, so understandably, it’s also friggin’ expensive, and not so easy, to get to Iqaluit. Which, maybe, explains a lot. Then again, the moment you see the yellow and purple stripes of the big top, and feel the sand squish under your feet on the impromptu dance floor, it feels worth it.

Clearly, I have a love-fest going on with Alianait. What’s your favourite Northern festival?