The John Arcand Fiddle Fest (JAFF) is a music, dance, and cultural festival held at Windy Acres, a rural property owned by John and Vicki Arcand located a short drive southwest of Saskatoon. It takes place annually in early-mid August. (In 2018, it was held from August 9 - 12.)
The Arcand farm where JAFF takes place
Started in 1998 by Métis fiddler John Arcand who “wanted to see the music preserved and the traditions carried on,” it quickly grew into one of the most important fiddle festivals in Canada. The first two days are packed with music, dance, and cultural workshops. Fiddle and guitar workshops led by teachers who specialize in Métis, old-time, and east-coast styles are interspersed with square dancing and Red River Jigging workshops. Beading, embroidery, finger weaving, and art workshops are also part of the event, as are storytelling sessions.
The evenings feature concerts by the fiddle workshop instructors and other special guests, followed by old-time dances that run late into the night.
On the evening of the second day, the fiddle competitions begin, becoming the main focus of the event’s third and fourth days. Competitors take part in eight age- and ability-based categories, as well as in four age-based “John Arcand” categories, which require competitors to play two compositions by Arcand. (This is a somewhat new addition to the competition, replacing the similarly-structured Andy Dejarlis categories.) In addition to trophies, competitors take home a combined total of $8245.
Although the music and dance featured at JAFF is not exclusively Métis, it is Métis-focused: it would be hard for any attendee to go home without having learned at least a little bit about traditional Métis music, dance, and cultural practices.
One of the ways that this is accomplished is through a traditional Métis showcase, which in 2018 featured Daniel Gervais on fiddle (and feet—or clogging) and Trent Bruner on piano. Gervais began by demonstrating ‘crooked’ tune structure. To do this, he played “Joys of Quebec” and “St. Anne’s Reel,” tunes that are widely known across Canada and beyond and that can be broken down into 16-, 8-, and 4-beat sections. He then played Richard Callihoo’s Duck Dance (so named because it was Métis fiddler Richard Callihoo’s version of the traditional Métis Duck Dance). Callihoo’s Duck Dance, like other Duck Dances, cannot be broken down into 4-beat sections, making it an example of what is often termed a ‘crooked’ tune. For the first time listener, it has an unpredictable structure. (In this recording, Gervais asks the audience to try counting 1 2 3 4 to see how far they get into the tune before the 4-best pattern dissolves.)
Gervais followed up his performance of Callihoo’s tune with “Cutknife Hill” by John Arcand. This was an important juxtaposition because “Cutknife Hill” is a ‘straight’ tune: there’s no mistaking its very predictable, 4-beat based structure. While crookedness is often a celebrated feature of Métis fiddling in revivalist circles, this juxtaposition pointed to both types of structures within the Métis repertoire.
Gervais also discussed cross-tuning. Referencing the traditional Métis-style fiddle category that used to be part of JAFF, he noted: “You had to play a Métis tune, a traditional Métis tune in standard tuning. So that was like the ‘Richard Callihoo Duck Dance’ that I did at the beginning. And then you had to play the ‘Red River Jig’ with your G string tuned up to an A. And then you had to do a tune in, you tune your G up to an A, your D up to an E, keep your A, and tune your E down to a C sharp. So it makes an open A tuning.” To demonstrate, Gervais played the “Devil’s Waltz” and Gilbert Anderson’s version of the “Duck Dance.”
The traditional Métis showcase ended with Yvonne Chartrand and Raymond Shumi joining Gervais and Bruner on the stage to demonstrate three ‘changes’ of the Red River Jig. (One ‘change’ means one time through the tune. The dancers start with the basic step for the first half of the tune followed by a fancy step for the second half. Therefore, three changes means the fiddler played the tune three times, while the dancers alternate the basic step with three different fancy steps.)
The crowd loved it, cheering loudly as the dancers showed off their fancy footwork.
Crowd under the ‘roof’ (the mainstage)
Métis-focused workshops provide a more hands-on approach to learning about Métis cultural practices. This year, the heat was stifling—reaching the high 30s—wreaking havoc on the fiddles, with pegs getting stuck and attempts to cross-tune our fiddles sounding more dissonant than intended. (Yes, all events are held outdoors.) Yet the heat did not deter the workshop attendees. Like others who took part in the workshops, I came home with new Métis tunes under my finger, as well as recordings of these tunes played both at tempo and slowed down to aid practice. I’m not sure that my jigging improved at all; the combination of my seven-month pregnant belly with the smoke from wild fires and soaring temperature made it difficult to move.
Smoke from wildfires blanketing the RV park (to the left) and the festival site (in the distance)
But, as Yvonne Chartrand shared, she learned to dance the Red River Jig as an adult. This gives me hope that I too might someday be able to successfully complete a few changes—maybe not the thirty plus changes that traditional dancers can do, but a few nonetheless.
For more information on this event visit the JAFF website.
NB: This post was drafted at the end of the summer in 2018, but due to a maternity leave, I’m a little late posting it!