Tansi - Welcome

2023 Photo Link & Artist Submissions

2023 Photo Link - https://www.photo-pick.com/online/uxG9Zo6R.link

Artist submissions - APPLY HERE

Welcome

Sakawinow Music Festival is Dedicated to providing a weekend experience where everyone feels welcomed, Included, and repersented no matter you Race, Sexual Orientation, or Culture.

Catalog

2023 Promo Video

More Info

Sakâwînow Music Festival is a 2-day, 2-night world Culture/Electronic Music festival.

Our goal is to host the largest multicultural music and dance
event held in the Peace Valley with our inaugural event Sakawinow Music
Festival, held on the 3rd Weekend of August.

What is it all about?

(12am – 4pm) Multicultural Music and Dance

Multi cultural music and dance from around the world to perform on our mainstage, showcasing and celebrating it.

(4pm – 6pm) 15 Minutes of Fame

this will be reserved for up-and-coming
talent that will perform in 15 min segments, hoping to provide an opportunity to perform for a large crowd and, giving a platform to new talent to promote themselves.

Evenings - Modern Style Music Festival

DJ’s, EDM,
Hip-Hop, Rap, Rock, Pop.

What else will there be?

Beer Gardens - Open 7pm – 2am

Over Night Camping - Trailer and Tent

Children’s Area - bouncy castles and other games providing fun for the whole family

Vendor's - Artisans, Baked Goods, Handmade Jewelry: Apply Here

Food Trucks - Multiple food trucks with cultural food from all over: Apply Here

How it Began

May long weekend 2021, Clayton Wood, Russell Day, and I all decided we wanted to go camping at Williston Reservoir well the water was low, leaving a sandy beach, a nice lake for swimming, and a beautiful view of the mountains. We quickly realized we forgot our chairs, and we had more people coming to join us, so we came up with the idea to dig a circle in the sand for people to be able to use as chairs. We very quickly learned how much work it was going to be, so we changed the idea into a big bonfire pit. All 3 of us plus Sebastian Desjarlais, and Corbin Brown ended up building a 3 feet deep and 10 feet wide hole in the sand, we then filled the hole 15 feet high with drift wood. Well building the bonfire and all night long we had all kinds of music playing like Powwow, Rap, Hip-Hop, Country, Afro beats, and many more. As more and more people showed up or came from other campsites to join in on the bonfire, I started noticing how happy people were and loving the different genera’s of music playing. We then lit the bonfire at sunset, and with a purply-pink sky, surrounded by mountains, Nature, water, friends and music, the dream for Sakawinow Music Festival was born.

Background is the bonfire.

About the Owner

Hello, My Name is Daniel Desjarlais, I am First Nations from West Moberly First Nations and the owner and founder of Sakâwînow Music Festival Inc. I’ve done a lot in my life and plan to do a lot more. I Started playing sports when I was 6 years old, I played Hockey, Lacrosse, and Rugby. I played hockey since I was 6 and still go to drop in when I can find the time. Lacrosse I played for only 3 years, but man did I love that sport. I played Rugby in Highschool at Fulton Secondary School in Vernon BC, I was more of a fill in as I mainly focused on Hockey and Lacrosse.

At the age of 12 I had joined the Army Cadets and quickly fell in love with all the survival training and target shooting that we did, I stayed in the cadets till I aged out at 19 a Chief Warrant Officer and the RSM (Regimental Sergeant major) of my Core. Near the end of my Cadet Career, I also entered a program called “Bold Eagle” which is an Indigenous basic military training program, but instead of staying in the military I decided to return to my Cadet core and age out before reapplying.

I never did end up reapplying but instead felling in love with Culinary Art’s (professional cooking) and decided to go to Okanagan collage in Kelowna for my Culinary Art’s and Management Diploma. where I ended up getting hired by Predator Ridge Golf Resort during the summers of 2016 – 2019 and Silver Grill at Silver Star Ski Resort during the winter months. Personally, I Enjoyed both jobs a lot we got to make everything from scratch, so I learned a lot of new ways of cooking, prepping, and the correct ways to make lots of different food. I also helped a friend open a restaurant in Vernon, BC called “Jolly Good Spudz”, it did really well, but I ultimately had to leave back to Predator Ridge for the summer.

That winter after leaving Jolly Good Spudz and Predator Ridge I decided to go back home to Moberly Lake, BC to try to bring my knowledge of cooking to the community and see the different opportunities that would present themselves. I have been back home now for 4 years, in that time I worked at the Moberly Lake Gold Course for 1 summer, West Moberly afterschool care for 1 winter, then the River House for 6 month’s before the Pandemic hit. I like to stay busy, so I was looking for a job during the pandemic and saw that Twin Sisters Native Plant Nursery was hiring packers, I went and applied and worked my way up to sales and marketing. I parted ways with TSNPN in Novemebr of 2022 so I can focous more on building my dream the Sakawinow Music Festival.

I have always had a passion for bringing people together to celebrate cultures and support local creators and business. I feel like building Sakâwînow Music Festival is going to be the best way for me to be able to support as much as I can in a fun and interactive way

Thank you for reading,

Daniel Desjarlais.

Sakâwînow Music Festival

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All Merch can be found under catalog at the top of the page or button below