The legend of Edmonton’s Flying Canoë festival comes from a mix of Indigenous and French storytelling, based on an old French tale of a nobleman who enjoyed hunting so much he refused to attend Sunday mass, and was punished by having to fly a canoe forever through the night skies with galloping horses and howling wolves in hot pursuit. The well-known version of the folktale came from Honoré Beaugrand, who published La Chasse-galerie in 1892. It tells the tale of a group of woodcutters who make a deal with the devil to quickly fly them home to their sweethearts on New Year’s Eve — but if they mention God’s name or touch a church steeple along the way, the devil will posses their souls.
The beginnings of Edmonton’s Flying Canoë came from what the Winter Light Society once did with the Mill Creek adventure walk, which was an illuminated journey through the Mill Creek Ravine. A few years later, La Cité Francophone took over and became the new festival’s producer, which ever since has kept the light alive in the creek and French quarter.
Daniel Cournoyer, executive director of La Cité Francophone, says “We’ve taken that story, and adapted it to our own local history, including our own Voyageur history. So it’s the same story of these boys longing for their loved ones, and who knocks at the door but the devil, and they make that deal. And therefore those boys are condemned to fly in the skies forever. Except every year at the top of February, they make a cameo appearance down in the Mill Creek ravine and over here in the French Quarter of Edmonton.”
The cultural centre takes the pillars of the story, and “works with our Indigenous and Métis communities to celebrate with Edmonton all the magic and the wonder of a long winter’s night,” which means giving space and technical support to all artists and “festival fillers” who program the show. “The only guiding principle is to be inspired by the legend,” Cournoyer says.
Organizations like the Native Counseling Services of Alberta have programmed the Indigenous stage almost since the beginning, and the Cunningham Family Band performs every year at the Métis Camp. Then there’s the Trapper’s Cabin, where you’ll find Roger Dallaire, Flying Canoë’s “celebrated Franco-Albertan storyteller,” whose versions of the tale can include men working up at the camps in Fort McMurray, making deals to make their pickup trucks fly them home only to suffer the same plight as their narrative forefathers. “We’re a festival of story and traditions, but also of contemporary art,” Cournoyer says. “In the depths of winter, we have a lot of darkness in Edmonton. And we’re trying to leverage that darkness into something magical. Our goal is to become Edmonton’s illumination festival.”
The festival illuminates Mill Creek from 86th to 92nd Avenues, then up on street level from Rutherford School to La Cité Francophone itself. And with the Valley LRT line running, the entire festival space is bookended by the Muttart and Bonnie Doon stations, with shuttles running from each.
The on-site geodesic domes, full of music, food and light shows, expand and multiply each year, and whether you’re holding hands with your sweetheart or clapping along as you dance a jig, there are plenty of ways to take part in the Legend of the Flying Canoë.
“Down in the Mill Creek ravine, it hedges a little more on the traditions, the jigs and reels, the storytelling, and the friendship dances,” Cournoyer says. “And then when you get up into the urban landscape, we move more into the contemporary art forms of today’s bands, and the cabarets and the different programming that we have there. One of the key principles I’ve always said is that I don’t want us to observe culture, I want us to have a chance to partake, to interact, to literally hold one’s hand. We’re working with our partners and trying to create immersive experiences for our audience, and it’s a great way to meet your neighbours.”
Immerse yourself in your neighbours’ light at this year’s Flying Canoë Volant festival.
