Like most things in the NWT over the past five years, Hay Days has been put on hold for reasons ranging from Covid to floods to wildfires.
But the Rotary Club of Hay River Sunrise is dead set on getting things back on track this year. So much so that the slogan for this year reflects that: Come Hell or High Water.
The 2024 festival is set to happen from July 2 to 7 and it will be the first full week of events since 2019. April Glaicar, the festival's coordinator, said having Hay Days return is a much-needed boost for the town.
"We all need this," she said. "We want people to socialize, to gather, to be with each other and enjoy what makes our part of the world great. West Point First nation was damaged, K'atl'odeeche First Nation and the town both took damage, Paradise Gardens was damaged and, of course, look at what happened to Enterprise. We need something to lift our spirits."
The 2020 festival was cancelled because of Covid and while there was something resembling a festival in 2021, it was really a series of small events spread out over a few weeks.
"We were still under Covid regulations back then and things could've changed at any time," said Glaicar. "It was just better to do a bit each week."
Both the floods in 2022 and wildfires last year meant nothing would be happening at all, even though Glaicar said there were schedules in place for each year.
The big thing this year, said Glaicar, is for everything to be as inclusive as possible.
"We want to break down any sort of barriers that would stop anyone from being a part of this," she said. "We have our sponsors who help ensure families can enjoy everything."
The first three days of the festival will see workshops of all sorts for children, youth and families from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Of course, the later workshops will be for the adults - they begin at 6 p.m. each evening.
"Our facilitators for those (workshops) are coming from Yellowknife, Behchoko, Fort Smith and here in Hay River," said Glaicar.
July 5 will feature something called the Corporate Art Attack and that's something Glaicar is confident everyone will enjoy.
"We have six teams of four and they'll be designing something, but the trick is they don't know what they're getting themselves into," she said. "They show up and all get their materials at the same time, but they won't know until it's time to start."
Each team will have one hour to complete their project with no planning or preparation.
"It's like team building on speed dating-type time," joked Glaicar.
Another of the big events is the Saturday Night Shaker, which is scheduled for the Aurora Ford Arena on July 6. There will be plenty of live music with the headliner being Hay River's own Chevy Beaulieu, who now calls Airdrie, Alta., home. Like a lot of Northerners, Beaulieu moved to Alberta to further his music career and signed on with 604 Records out of Vancouver earlier this year.
The full schedule can be found at the Hay Days website and the only thing Glaicar hopes is that the weather will simply co-operate.
"I just hope Mother Nature will be on our side this year," she said.