The Yellowknife Historical Society is expecting close to 400 visitors to gather at the Wardair float base in Old Town tomorrow for the 10th Annual Beer Barge.
This year's edition will begin at 4 p.m. and will feature live music from Baby Brian's Country club and fiddle player Andrea Bettger performed in front of a backdrop featuring the old Stoke's Bar that used to be located in the city. In order to honor the 10th edition of the event long-time, Yellowknifers will be telling stories about the city's past.
photo courtesy of Yellowknife Historical Society
The barge is expected to come in to dock sometime between 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., with a competition running for guests to try to guess exactly when the boat will arrive.
“The tradition was that Yellowknife residents at the time, would guess the time. Kind of like what time is break up, when's the best time, so they would have contests, so we kind of do that as well,” said Tracey Bryant, a coordinator with the Yellowknife Historical Society.
The event takes place every year in mid-June as a way to celebrate when the first barge of summer would arrive in the NWT capitol in the '40s and '50s.
Barges were the only mode of transportation that were able to re-supply the city until the first road to the south was built in the '60's. Bryant says that the first summer barge was especially important because it was the first barge that was able to provide residents of the city with not only what they needed, but also what they wanted.
photo courtesy of Yellowknife Historical Society
“Back in the 1940's when there was no road to Yellowknife, the town was dependent on the seasonal barge for re-supply of the town. Typically by mid-June, the town had run out of it's liquor supply,” said Bryant.
“Back then it was very much a prospectors' mining town, so everybody knew that first barge of the season was a cause for celebration because not only did it carry all the supplies for the mine and all the important stuff but it always had the summer stock of beer.”
To keep in line with tradition, once the barge arrives at the Old Town dock this Saturday, there will be a hand off of the ceremonial case of beer, that's when Bryant says the party really starts to get going.
“We kind of re-enact that ceremonious time, you know so when the barge actually comes in and docks we have the people in costume and the pipers piping on the barge,” said Bryant.
The modern edition of the summer barge first began in 2009, when the City of Yellowknife was celebrating its 50th year anniversary.
At that time the Yellowknife Historical Society wanted to begin raising funds to build a museum on the grounds of Giant Mine, today the money raised from ticket sales at the event still goes towards this goal.
Bryant said the society is now only a few years away from opening that museum honoring the history of the capitol city.