Wake the Giant took place this past Saturday here in Thunder Bay, and it was the culmination of a lot of work over the past 1.5 years. For those of you who don’t know, the purpose was to celebrate cultures with a spotlight on Indigenous culture and music. The festival featured a mix of Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists. The goal was to bring different cultures, age groups, music lovers and festival fans all together at one big event. Its aim was to also bring the community closer together and promote Indigenous artists by giving them access to new audiences and opportunities to network with established artists.

My wife and I Anne attended the entire event and we were both extremely impressed with everything. The performers were of course amazing, but everything was also right on schedule. Not only were there some big name bands like Metric, July Talk and Coleman Hell, but there was also a great mix of local talent too. The highlight of the night, I think for many people, was when local students from DFC School performed an original song on stage with July Talk. July Talk, took time out of their own schedule, prior to the event, to record a song with the students. It really was a great moment.

From my point of view, the event looked like a huge success. By the time evening rolled around, the grounds were packed with people. And, because there were no chairs allowed up front, everyone was dancing and standing in front of the stage! Hopefully, this event becomes a yearly thing as it really is for such and important cause.