New festival on St. Joseph Island bringing back all things traditional this Thanksgiving

AlgomaTrad Harvest Fest 2018 promises to deliver an entire weekend of heritage art, traditional music and dance on St. Joseph Island during the Thanksgiving weekend.

AlgomaTrad artistic director Pat O’Gorman says the the three-day event is an extension of the camps and programs hosted by the non-profit organization over the past 15 years.

“It’s kind of like a mini AlgomaTrad camp, with the same kind of things where it’s heritage arts, crafts, music and dance workshops, concerts and food,” O’Gorman said.

A number of traditional musical acts are scheduled to perform through the event, including award-winning family musical act The O’Schraves and Canadian open fiddle champion Paul Lemelin.

A series of music workshops in piano, ukulele, tin whistle, bagpipes, step dancing, Turkish hand drumming will round out the musical portion of AlgomaTrad Harvest Fest 2018.

Meanwhile, blacksmithing, basketry and bird feeder building workshops will be available for those wanting to learn more about heritage arts.

The event will also feature a farm-to-table dinner using local produce.

“It just seems like that whole thing of harvest and making things and eating together, sharing music, is totally on par with Thanksgiving,” said artistic director Julie Schryer.

AlgomaTrad received a grant for festival from the Ontario Arts Council through its Northern Arts program in order to fund the event, which is scheduled to take place Oct. 5-7.

“We just want to bring those back and that’s a big part of what the music is about, and the dancing,” Schryer said. “It really is about connection and building community.”

The public is encouraged to visit the AlgomaTrad website for more ticket information and a full schedule of events and workshops.