Float on the Rocks returned to Yellowknife Bay on Thursday, an evening of music where the audience arrives by canoe, kayak or paddleboard.
For the second year in a row, the event took place to a backdrop of wildfire smoke rolling in from fires to the southeast and in northern Alberta.
Hundreds of people emerged from the smoke in their watercraft to watch local and out-of-town bands perform on the deck of a houseboat near Dog Island.
Musicians included Baby Brian and Big Independent, Nix & Menno, Aladean Kheroufi, and The Co-op, with guests including Grace Clark, Alex Ketchum, Jonny Vu and Margaret Bell.
(Yes, that’s right. In Big Independent and The Co-op, Yellowknife now has two bands named after local grocery stores.)
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Nix & Menno and Aladean Kheroufi, the out-of-town performers, will also perform at this weekend’s Folk on the Rocks festival, which you can stream live via the Cabin Radio app and website from 12pm daily.
Cabin Radio’s Andrew Goodwin helped the organizers accept donations to thank Float on the Rocks’ artists. Goodwin began that task by moving from boat to boat using his kayak, but ultimately gave up and decided to swim from vessel to vessel instead.
“I had my kayak and the plan was to go around with the kayak and get cash donations, but we also had a QR code set up,” Goodwin said on Friday’s Mornings at the Cabin.
“During the soundcheck, I watched a band walk from a houseboat to Dog Island. The tricky thing with a kayak when it’s densely populated is you can’t navigate through to get everyone and you’re inevitably going to miss a bunch of people.
“So I just took the lid off, hopped in and walked around. It was great. The water was nice. There were maybe only 10 vessels that were so far, I had to actually swim out to them.”
All photos by Sarah Pruys.
