Festival du Voyageur is held every February at Whittier Park in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It is one of the largest annual festivals in the city and has become one of the favourite winter traditions for Winnipeg residents since the 1970s.
Festival du Voyageur attracts about 95,000 people every season. The festival, located around the historic Fort Gibraltar, is famous for its live music, traditional French-Canadian food, and children’s fun. The Canada Life School Program offers many workshops and activities for kids focusing on unique and customized learning experience. The festival also features a few popular contests, including a Beard Growing Contest, Fiddling & Jigging Contest, and the International Snow Sculpting Symposium.
The Festival du Voyager lasts for ten days showcasing Canada's French heritage, traditional crafts, and fur-trading past. There is plenty of live entertainment, arts, crafts, music, and exhibits dedicated to arts and culture. One of the main attractions of the Festival is its magnificent snow sculptures with the historic Fort Gibraltar in the background.
The festival dedicated to Francophonie in Manitoba was initiated by language rights activist Georges Forest in 1967. It was first centred in Winnipeg's French Quarter, Saint-Boniface. The festival then shortly became a success drawing 200,000 people in 1971. In 2011, The Voyageur Festival got the Award of Excellence for Promotion of Linguistic Duality.
