Media.Knet.Ca

Information Sheet

The Muddy Water Music Festival will be held on July 18, 19, 20 & 21, 2001 in Sandy Lake First Nation.

Sandy Lake is located in North-western Ontario approximately 65 miles east of the Ontario-Manitoba border and 216 miles northwest of Sioux Lookout, Ontario. Our community is an isolated reserve with only fly-in transportation year round.

Sandy Lake has a population of 2034 people.

The annual event started in 1983. It was started by a group of young people to establish inspiration and self-esteem. The first annual event was held at a location called “Paradise Valley” in Sandy Lake. It was held there for a few years before being moved to another location by the old school that had the “Fort” at the time. It was also held there for a few years before it was moved again to its present location called Ghost Point. The Ghost Point site is a great location for this annual event, because it has a very nice scenery and away from the general public. The Ghost Point site is also used during treaty days.

It is our opportunity for inspiring musician to show their talents. Young, inexperienced musicians get to share the same stage with the same equipment as professional bands. Spectators of all ages get to enjoy and appreciate a kaleidoscope of music. The festival will help to continue to develop and strengthen community and inter-community relationships with our participating communities.

The Muddy Water Music Festival Event has always had a host band from the reserve. Some of the host bands in the past are “Who Cares”, “Rathouse Band”, “Bear Paws” and “Jam Shack”. This year’s host band will be the MUSKEWABO BAND.

The summer of 2001 will be the eighteenth anniversary of Sandy Lake First Nation’s annual celebration of the Muddy Water Music Festival. The event of this kind is the only major regional musical event in an isolated reserve, north of Sioux Lookout, Ontario.

The Muddy Water Music Festival itself runs entirely about eighty volunteers. Most or all of the volunteers are young people who arrange everything from setting up the accommodations to nailing down plywood to being M.C.’s for the event.

We all expect, as usual, plane loads of fans from other Nishnawbe-Aski Nation communities creating a population boom at Sandy Lake First Nation. Our relatives, friends and associates also come from across the border from Winnipeg, Wassagamach, St. Theresa Point, Red Sucker Lake and Garden Hill, Manitoba.

It is in this time all the communities who participate that they become one, united and see what we can accomplish through our international language of music.