Article 2: The Trappers Festival Stage and Talent Show

The Northern Manitoba Trappers Festival has been celebrated for many years since its introduction to the town of The Pas in 1916. At its inception, trappers used to come from far and near towns for the fur trade. They traveled on dog sleds in the winter for trade and made good money after sales. The Pas was the point of convergence for all these traders. In 1915, according to Lambert (1988), three senior citizens, namely C.B. Morgan, William Bunting and William Hughes held a meeting. They talked about the adverse effects of the fur trade on their community and came up with the celebration of the dog sled races in a competitive way with many other activities which add up to make the event more exciting. In 1916, the first trappers’ festival was organized with the dog races as the main attraction. Back then, it was called The Pas Dog Derby, but it later became the World Championship Dog Race which is the major event at the festival (Lambert, 1988).

Subsequently, the trappers’ festival became an opportunity to showcase the various cultures of The Pas and the trapping lifestyle of Canada’s wildlands (Museum, 2018). The Trappers festival in The Pas is held every third week in February. Many other events have made their way into the festival, some of which include: the Fur Queen contest, the stage and talent show, King and Queen Trapper, international tea and fashion show and a lot more. Each year has a different theme for the festival. This year 2018, Fur was the theme of the festival. Of all the many events that are held in the festival this paper will report on the stage and talent show.

Initially, my desire was to see the Fur Queen contest. However, for some unknown reasons, the team that was in charge of selling the tickets for the event gave a wrong information which contradicted the schedule in the Trappers Festival booklet. It turned out that the Fur Queen event was held two days earlier, completely out of synch with the ticket sellers’ information. Even though I missed part of the annual tea gathering, I was glad I had a glimpse of it. The annual tea gathering was held at Living Water Apostolic Fellowship church premises. It started in the morning with fund raising around 10am. The fund raising comprised of food and pastries prepared by individuals to sell. Later in the evening, churches and people from different denomination were invited to gather at the church premises for a musical night and get together. Different churches sang different songs. It was quite impressive to see lots of people from town gather in one place to socialize. Prior to the musical show at the church, I had the opportunity of witnessing the stage/talent show.

It was a classic case of stumbling-on-an-event-by-accident. I thought I was attending the Fur Queen show, only to arrive at the venue and be told that it was a different show that was taking place there. I was informed by two lovely sales ladies at the venue that the Fur Queen event had been on Wednesday, and this was Friday. I was sad. But looking back now, I can say it was worth it. I suddenly found myself sitting with four other people on a bench in a huge hall filled with other people where the stage and talent show was being held.

The stage and talent show was only introduced into the festival in the 2011 edition of the festival. Formally, it used to be called a stage show and was one of the highlights of the festival. In previous years, musicians from all over Canada were invited to come and entertain the crowd to some good music. Stan Rogers was one of the musicians invited to perform at the festival. The musicians were paid a hefty amount of money to perform, but soon it became expensive to invite them. It went to as high as $15000 per band. Apart from the lump sum paid to each musical group, all other expenses of the group were covered by the trappers committee. The organizers of the show later realized they were spending more and running at a loss with the stage show. Things soon took a new dimension as the show became known as the talent and stage show. People from the community were given the chance to flaunt their talents . The good thing about the new show was that it was designed for people of all ages and gender. It meant that an entire family could register and perform in the different age categories of the event. As a result, it gave the community an opportunity to discover and celebrate their own people.

The talent and stage show is divided into three main age groups: the twelve and under, thirteen to seventeen, and the eighteen and over. Fundraising for the show started months before the trappers’ festival. This year, there was $1250 cash and prizes to be won. The first prize took home $500. In every category, only eight participants were allowed and it was on a first-come first-served bases. Registration was done online. As usual the 2018 show was open to the public so long as one had the talent; however, some participants took months of training to perfect their talents. A few were fortunate to have private instructors.
Admission into the premises was not free. The gate fee was $10 for adults and $5 for children. It started at 7 pm and ended at 9 pm. After speaking to a few families with children, who were in attendance at this year’s show, I found out that some had been competing for the past five years whiles others were new entrants.

The talent and stage show was held indoors at the Margaret Barbour Collegiate Institute. The stage for the show was decorated in blue drapes. In my opinion, it requires boldness and confidence since the participants are judged by the audience, as well as by appointed judges. In this year’s show, some participants sang to the soundtrack of a song of their choice, while others did karaoke. Some chose to sing an acapella, while a few others played musical instruments, with a fraction of them singing to the notes.
It was a delight to watch the under twelve category because it was obvious the adults knew what they were doing and found it easier to perform. I saw some of the under twelve participants holding sheets of papers and singing with it. They mostly sang about love, and it was quite impressive watching them hit vibratos. The most memorable performance of the night from the under twelve category was done by a group of dancers called Town Steppers. They performed step dancing which made their act unique and totally different from everyone else’s. Also, the audience applauded to a melodious duet by Josh and his sister Jane. They sang “Titanium” originally done by musician David Guetta featuring Sia. Considering their ages, which is between eight and twelve, they really challenged themselves with the choice of song. Another contestant, Kate Spencer also played a fiddle. She could easily make a stressed person relax. One young lady who won the hearts of the audience because of the lyrics of the song and the way she sang it, was seven-year-old Chanel Young. She evoked some tear-filled emotion from the audience. Some of the lyrical content of her rendition was “Daddy’s hand was soft when I was crying and hard when I did wrong, there was always love in them”. Another participant worthy of note in the twelve and under division was Shannon. She sang a song from the movie “Frozen” with the title “Don’t come home”. Although her singing was not perfect, her charisma endeared her to the audience. In the end, Josh and Jane emerged winners of the under twelve division.

In comparison, the performance by the thirteen to seventeen years category was not as interesting as the under twelve group, except for Mykayla who has been participating for years. She sang “bye bye love” by George Harrison and played the guitar alongside. It was a fun and a youthful song. She won the division.

Regular participants like Jeremy Richards, Seth Richards, Chery Lambert, and Mr. Nelson took part in the eighteen above category. Seth Richards chose to play a guitar and sing alongside. He sang about the love of his life, and ended up winning his category, namely, eighteen and over.

At some point in the evening, the Fur Queen contestants came over to support the program. They wore their beautiful velvety soft fur jackets. They were invited to the stage and introduced to the audience. Each fur queen was given an opportunity to speak about themselves and motivate the participants of the talent and stage show. The venue for the event was very cold. I wore my winter jacket throughout the entire program even though it was held indoors. The show was well attended as it was more of a family-oriented event. Towards the end of the program, many people left. One could tell that it was bedtime for some of the children; hence, most of the parents left with their children. The organizers were disciplined when it came to keeping to time. They succeeded in closing the event on time.

The 2018 Stage/Talent Show event of the Northern Manitoba Trappers’ Festival has come and gone. However, going forward, more efforts should be put in by participants to make the show much more exciting. I strongly believe that there is a lot of talents in this beautiful town. Consequently, more efforts and resources need to be devoted to sustaining and enhancing the program for future festivals.

References
Lambert, S. (1988). Manitoba History: The Northern Manitoba Trappers’ Festival: A Brief History. Retrieved from:
http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/15/trappersfestival.shtml
Museum, S. W. (2018). Speed, Brawn & Beauty: The History of the Northern Manitoba Trappers’ Festival. Retrieved
from: http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/sgc-cms/histoires_de_chez_nous-community_memories/pm_v2.php?
id=story_line&lg=English&fl=0&ex=00000382&sl=3165&pos=1Pas,%20MS%20The%20Pas,%20Manitob#

About the Author: Gloria Yeboah was born and raised in Ghana. She is currently enrolled in the Bachelor of Arts program Integrated in Education. Her philosophy is “make the best of every situation.” She enjoys listening to music.

Instructor’s Remarks:
Gloria Yeboah was my student in the Academic Research and Writing (IDS.1003) course. She only recently relocated to Canada from her home country of Ghana. Her reportorial essay on an aspect of the 2018 edition of the Northern Manitoba Trappers’ Festival in the town of The Pas reflects the communal spirit which every resident of the North, irrespective of their original place of birth, share. (Dr. Joseph Atoyebi)