Rain or shine, Folk on the Rocks brings heart and heat to Yellowknife

This weekend’s changing weather – from Friday’s heavy downpour and deafening thunder that cancelled Warm the Rocks, to Sunday’s blazing sun, to windy, chiller-than-July temperatures on Sunday – didn’t stop Yellowknifers from celebrating the return of Folk on the Rocks (FOTR).

The three-day music festival ran from July 18 to 20 on the shores of Long Lake, with over 20 bands and solo artists lighting up five stages and connecting with festivalgoers through music.

This year’s headliners include Juno Award-winning hip pop duo Snotty Nose Rez Kids, psychedelic rock band The Shivas from Portland, Oregon, country-blues singer Jeremie Albino, and Peter Dreams, co-lead of award-wining band July Talk.

Among the performers were two Indigenous artists from the Northwest Territories making their debut as official FOTR lineup artists: two-spirit Dene author and musician Cassandra Blondin-Burt and Jonathan Antoine of Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation in Fort Simpson.

Blondin-Burt, a former journalist who once covered the festival for local media including The Yellowknifer, News North and NNSL Media, said they were excited to return this year in a different role – as a Yellowknife Dene musician.

They performed eight songs in total, including one accompanied by a Dene drum.

“It’s highly unusual in Dene communities for women to both drum and sing,” said Blondin-Burt. “It’s super controversial, and this has actually been a huge reason why it’s taken me so long for me to step out in the music community and decide intentionally how I want to take up space.”

The drum Blondin-Burt played was gifted by their great grandfather. They described it as a Chippewa women’s drum, which traditionally has 13 laces to represents the 13 moons of women’s menstrual cycle – unlike men’s drums, which typically have four, six, or eight.

“Music has been such a deep medicine for me, so I hope that no matter what our youth’s gender is, everybody opens their hearts to the paths that their ancestors give them to find their healing,” they said.

For Antoine, music has been a source of strength that supported him since he began his sobriety journey four years ago.

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“When I was getting sober, my guitar has always been there that I could just grab and play,” he said. “It helped me get through tough times.”

He first performed at the festival during the main stage showdown in 2024, but didn’t make the lineup. Getting the call this year was, he said, “the greatest feeling in the world.”

“It’s a dream come true,” said Antoine. “I’m connected to the land a lot, and the community of Fort Simpson is an amazing place to call home,” said Antoine. “The beauty and the land totally inspire me to sing about how great life is.”

Last fall, the FOTR team released a new strategic planning report, which included the implementation of an Indigenous advisory circle by the end of 2027, who ought to guide the festival with an Indigenous perspective.

“Reconciliation in the Northwest Territories is often about partnering with Indigenous-led organizations and letting Indigenous folks make the decision on whether or not reconciliation has been occurring within the festival,” the organization’s executive director Teresa Horosko told CKLB last year.

The plan also promises to partner with at least two Indigenous tourism organizations, businesses or governments to support Indigenous economic development.

Here are highlights of FOTR 2025: