Mackenzie Days festival returns after 5-year hiatus

Mackenzie Days is coming back to Fort Providence, N.W.T., this summer after a five-year hiatus.

The festival was cancelled in 2013 because of a lack of planning and a closed recreation centre, but the biggest factor was alcohol.

• Fort Providence, N.W.T., cancels 40-year-old summer festival

In 2012, the RCMP received 43 calls over the festival's three days, and almost all of them were alcohol related.

Now the festival is being brought back, and the Mackenzie Days Society is working to avoid those problems for this year's festival.

"It's zero tolerance. If you show up to an event intoxicated, you would not participate in said event," said Carol Bonnetrouge, the president of the Mackenzie Days Society.

Bonnetrouge said they will be hiring a security company for the event, and they will have volunteer security guards.

There are only two events that will allow alcohol the adult talent show and the adult dance.

Linda Croft, the society's treasurer, has been working between three and four hours a day to bring this project together.

"After it was gone, it was like a big empty hole," said Croft.

Croft said it will cost between between $70,000 and $80,000to put the festival together, so the society has been fundraising, applying for grants, and soon they will be asking for sponsors.

The festival will include a carnival, hand games tournamentand a parade.

There is also a new event this year participants debone, cook, and eat a fish and the person who eats their fish first wins.

The society will alsowaive many of the traditional entry fees, especially the entry fees for youths. The goal is to make the festival accessible to as many people as possible.

"We want to make sure that everyone who wants to be involved can be involved," said Croft.

Any profits from the festival will be used to support sporting and cultural events. For example, the funds could be used to send a child to a hockey tournament that they otherwise couldn't afford to attend.

"We're going to be generous," said Croft. "We're going to make sure that people who haven't been included because of their financial situation will have that opportunity."

Mackenzie Days will take place over August long weekend.