Festival to showcase global indigenous music, performance

An upcoming arts festival in Saskatoon featuring indigenous culture is bringing in acts from around Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

The Saskatchewan World Indigenous Festival for the Arts (SWIFFA) will take place at the Delta Bessborough gardens Aug. 24-25.

"Oh, it's going to be phenomenal," said Rosa Walker for the SWIFFA planning committee. "We're going to have one main stage, and on that stage you're going to see acts from around the world."

The two-day event is being held in conjunction with the World Indigenous Business Forum 2016, which is being held August 23-25.

SWIFFA executive producer Curtis Standing said the event has been in the works for the past year, and that he's excited to finally get the word out. 

"Everybody's welcome, First Nations, non-First Nations," he said. "It's going to be a great event."

Acts scheduled for SWIFFA include:

• Don Amero (Canada)
• Errol Ranville and C-Weed Band (Canada)
• David Williams – Didgeridoo Performance (Australia)
• Shay Wright  and Travis O'Keefe – HAKA Moari Dance Performance  (New Zealand)
• Keith Secola, Arizona (USA)
• Intertribal Band, Oklahoma (USA)
• New Horizon (Canada)
• Black Rain (Canada)

"We're bringing in other international acts from all over the world. Plus, we have our own cultural acts," Standing said. "Plus we got more contemporary acts too. So once we build all these acts into it, we're going to have a good time."

Ticket information will be released at a later date. More information is available at the SWIFFA website.