What to expect at Fort Smith’s 2025 Fireweed Festival

The 2025 edition of Fort Smith’s Fireweed Festival is coming soon. Here’s everything you need to know about the event.

This year’s festival will take place from August 21-24, centred on Queen Elizabeth Territorial Park. Elements will be broadcast by both Cabin Radio and the CBC.

The festival will feature activities for all ages and musical performances by artists from across the territory and western Canada.

Activities include chicken poo bingo, bannock on a stick and a youth fiddle camp, which will end with a showcase performance on the main stage.

There will also be a vintage car show featuring classics from across the territory and a special guest appearance by Mike Hall of Rust Bros, a YouTube channel and vehicle restoration business.

Hall was also featured on the History Channel show Rust Valley Restorations, where he and his crew restored classic cars from junkyard scrappers to collectible vehicles.

Evening entertainment includes a kickoff party, a teen dance party and a Wild Bloom adult dance party.

Asked what she loves most about the Fireweed Festival, organizer Melissa Johns told Cabin Radio: “Bringing people to our community and being able to show everyone who we are and what Fort Smith is made of.”

“We have a lot of local performers in our community,” she added, “and being able to give them a place to showcase their music makes my heart happy.”

Dana Cross will perform with three different bands at the festival: 5/3 Mad, Garry Bailey and Shane Daniels.

“5/3 Mad is a little rockier and Garry Bailey is straight country. Shane Daniels is a mixture, he does lots of classic rock and some really good country,” Cross said.

Cross has been performing for almost 45 years after being inspired by a performance he watched in high school.

“I love interacting with the audience, love to see them singing along and clapping and dancing and having a good time, getting rid of all the stresses of the day and letting their hair down and letting go,” he said.

Ken Jans will perform with his Canadiana band The Kreaky Joints.

Jans, who has been performing for more than three decades, said Fort Smith “was my first road gig in the 80s, and in the 90s I ended up moving there.”

Jans got involved with music and performing at church. His parents were choir singers and the church’s drummer taught him how to play.

This year’s festival will also feature the Fireweed Arts Market, showcasing more than 35 artisans and makers’ creations all weekend.

At the Fireweed Eats food market, vendors will serve food from bannock to international flavours.

The festival has secured overflow camping at the Fort Smith Centennial Arena, in case camper stalls fill up in Queen Elizabeth Territorial Park.

Almost all activities will be free for anyone wanting to participate, except the kickoff party and the Wild Bloom adult dance party.

“Fireweed Festival NT is about more than music – it’s about bringing people together, celebrating our northern culture, and showcasing the incredible talent we have here in the NWT,” Johns was quoted as saying in a press release.