Yellowknifers announce new summer street festival on July 5

Yellowknifers are turning Harley’s Hardrock Saloon’s Show & Shine into a full-blown street festival that they hope will be reminiscent of Raven Mad Daze of years past.

This year, Harley’s will host its second annual Show & Shine on July 5 from 9am until 9pm (but it might go until midnight, organizers say). The event will offer family-friendly fun, prize giveaways and food.

“Along with many Yellowknifers, I fondly recall days past where we had Caribou Carnival, Raven Mad Daze and other events to bring out all walks of life, to have a day of fun and memories,” said Blaine Talbot, one of the organizers.

In past years, the whole downtown core was shut down for festivals like Raven Mad Daze and later Festival on Franklin to celebrate the summer solstice.

Raven Mad Daze was an annual fixture until it slipped off Yellowknife’s calendar somewhere around the year 2007. Festival on Franklin appeared as a replacement in the 2010s but did not survive the Covid-19 pandemic.

Caribou Carnival and its successor the Long John Jamboree, which were each March festivals conducted primarily on the frozen ice of Yellowknife Bay, have both disappeared.

A classic car show hosted by seniors’ care group Avens this month, however, appeared to demonstrate residents’ enthusiasm for that kind of event.

This year, Harley’s Show & Shine will feature muscle cars, classic cars, trucks and bikes. There will be face-painting and temporary tattoos for kids, with tattoo artists offering 30-minute tattoos for adults.

Talbot is working with Scott Yuill, the owner of Harley’s, to bring street festivals back, even if just on a small scale this year.

A section of 48 Street from the skywalk to Franklin Avenue will be shut down for this year’s event. Organizers hope to plan a larger-scale event next year.

“We’ve lost that connection to that togetherness spirit that Yellowknife used to have, where we could bring everyone together for one event,” Talbot said.

“Something about Raven Mad Daze instilled that memory in all of us. And though our event this year is not quite that big, the second this one’s over, we’re going to approach the city to try to shut down pretty-much all of downtown for next year.”