In pictures: Moments of magic from Hay Days 2025

“People need a really good time. We want to do that but, for us, it’s doing that in the most accessible way.”

Kevin Tremblay is the new coordinator of Hay Days, Hay River’s annual summer festival. For him, the goal is to create an event where most things can be accessed for little to no cost.

Over the course of four days, almost all of Hay Days’ 2025 events were free to attend except the Saturday night climax, a beach party with a $30 entry fee.

Corporate sponsors helped cover some of the festival’s costs. (In return, some had the opportunity to enter teams for a “corporate art attack” that, this year, involved building the best-looking set of wind chimes you could manage in an hour.)

Tremblay is taking over from April Glaicar, Hay Days’ coordinator since 2016.

“As a community event, we have always been focused on making it available to all families and all people in the community,” Glaicar said.

“We don’t want any barriers for children, youth or families to be able to participate in any aspect of it, and we reach out and try to be inclusive with adults in the community as well, encouraging supportive living services and other groups to come out.

“It’s really about offering art, music, culture to community members and exposing them to new things, and also showcasing our incredible musicians. We have so many incredible musicians in the NWT, and amazing artisans.”

From a youth showcase on Wednesday to beachfront performances on Saturday, there were daily musical events that featured artists from Yellowknife, Hay River, Fort Smith and Fort Simpson.

Artisans from Yellowknife, Hay River and Behchokǫ̀ appeared at multiple events.

While there were no Folk on the Rocks-esque lightning storms, Hay Days had to contend with some breezy days, local smoke and occasional rain.

“Rain is not an emergency. For us, that’s not a disaster. That’s a Tuesday,” said Tremblay.

“Covid changed the festival, and then the flood changed the festival, and the fires changed the festival, and the other fire changed the festival – and it changed the town. The way people get involved is different and what they need is different.”

The legacy of the 2022 flood was visible in the form of one of Hay Days’ venues this year.

Bob McMeekin Chamber Park was ruined by floodwater. As part the town’s rebuilding process, the park has been transformed with a new pavilion that shone as a riverside venue for a night of Hay Days music.

Glaicar said she is motivated by introducing people to new experiences in the world of music and the arts, citing as an example musician Norm Glowach indulging in some impromptu guitar-tuning with kids at the youth centre while wife Sue Glowach ran art workshops.

“It’s those little ah-has that nobody else might even notice, but you just happen to be in the right place, in the right seat that you get to observe it. Those things are just like magic happening,” she said.

Tremblay is contemplating ways the festival can expand in future years.

Organizers have tried to do so in part by handing off sections of the festival to local businesses and institutions, endeavouring to create capacity by relying on the likes of the youth centre or library to take on some of the work.

“Let’s take some risks. Let’s not have fear of failure stop us from trying,” Tremblay said of his likely approach in the years ahead.

“The things that are going to happen are going to happen, whether we’re sitting at home or we’re out doing it. So let’s go out and do it and become better people for it.”