A weekend of celebration highlighting world champion drummers and dancers, right here in Southern Alberta.
The 56th Piikani Annual Celebration kicking off in Brocket, bringing young and old together to showcase Blackfoot culture.
“We pride ourselves on being the first First Nations in Canada to host this annual celebration and pow wow,” said Byron Jackson, Piikani Nation’s CEO.
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The community expects thousands for this year’s events, though only 500 of those are contestants.
Participants compete for cash prizes and a number of them have been dancing in pow wows for years.
The celebration committee spends all year planning this event. But organizers say no matter how many hours you put in, there are just some things you can’t prepare for, like weather.
Saturday’s events were postponed for over two hours due to Friday’s heavy rainfall, but participants were eager to take the opportunity for a little more practice. Especially for some new events.
“We have the grand opening of our new race track, the Piikani Nation horse race track so it’s pretty exciting,” said Lowell Yellow Horn, who helped organize the event.
The Piikani Nation Annual Celebration continues Sunday at noon, with more drumming, dancing and singing.
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