Radio Collector's Afficionado's Resource

Toronto is home to a good deal of events and festivals. One such event is the Canadian Aboriginal Festival, the greatest of it is kind in Canada which I attended recently. It is normally held late November or early December. It was my primary time at this event which has been held at the Rogers Centre (Skydome) in Toronto for the last various years.

I got there for the Grand Entry of the Native American Indian dance contestants and it was surely a outstanding spectacle to witness, much like the entry of athletes at the Olympics. It was outstanding to see so much representation of dissimilar age groups and Native groups from all over North America at this giant pow wow like event. The dissimilar Native American Indian singing drum groups disseminate out along the perimeter of the main floor took turns supplying the accompanying music for the dancers.

I was very impressed with the dancers, their colorful costumes and of course, the powerful Native American Indian pow wow drum music which accompanied each dance performance. Different dances were grouped by type of dance including contemporary (but still Native) and traditional. Male and female dancers went on separately and numerous sections were disunited by age group as well.

For most of the dance competitions, one of the Native American Indian singing drum groups would be asked to fetch their set up to the middle of the floor and the dancers would in truth dance around the seated drummers. When a dance section was huge with a lot of dancers, the scene was like a giant swirl of wild colors. As a result, most of the dancing was an unbelievable spectacle to witness.

I was less impressed with the quality and range of Native American Indian art at the festival’s Marketplace though. Most were bead work, dream catchers, low end jewelry, leatherwork and t-shirts with Native themes for sale. There weren’t very much high end gallery quality Native art present. The only Northwest Native Indian representation was a single booth supplying aboriginal design blankets. No Northwest Native Indian art of any other type was present. There was only one Inuit art booth with only a minimal number of little stone carvings available.

The established Native Indian feed was okay. I had a salad venison stew combo which was delicious. I likewise tried the buffalo burger but found the deep fried buns to be much too oily for my taste. At $7 per burger, the price was a bit steep too. This was the same price for the stew. There was also moose burger on the menu as well but I didn’t have a huge sufficient appetite to try both types of burgers available.

They had fashion shows and musical performances there too but they were more contemporary rather than aboriginal and most of the festival’s action was still at the main dance areas. There were a good deal of other booths representing Native American Indian groups and related aboriginal businesses but I think these were of little interest to most attendees. It was unquestionably the native dancing that was the major draw for the Canadian Aboriginal Festival.

Toronto’s Rogers Centre Skydome was a good indoor emplacement for the event but given the comparatively sparse attendance in particular of non-Native public, it might have been too huge a venue as I would estimate that only 10 percent of stadium seats at most were ever occupied at any one time. Don’t forget that the Skydome is a full size sports baseball/football stadium.

Would I go again? Sure, for the $10 ticket entry, the Native American Indian dance and accompanying music singing drum performances were surely worth it. The Canadian Aboriginal Festival was closely like a National Geographic particular coming to life.

Canadian Dreams American Control Contemporary Image

Canadian Dreams American Control Contemporary Pic

Canadian Dreams American Control Contemporary Pic

Canadian Dreams American Control Contemporary Picture