A new festival celebrating Indigenous culture with music, dance and more, will be take place beside Shuswap Lake later this month.

The Salmon Arm Folk Music Society (SAFMS) invites the public to attend the Pellsqepts Spring Winds Music Festival, being held at Pierre鈥檚 Point on Saturday, March 18.

Complete with a variety of Indigenous music, art and dancing, the free festival is open to all ages and will showcases handcrafted goods from Shuswap artisans and delicious treats from local food vendors.

鈥淲e want to celebrate the original peoples of the land here in the Secw茅pemc,鈥� said Kenthen Thomas, the folk society鈥檚 Indigenous and youth coordinator. 鈥淲hat better way to do this than with a lineup of some of the best music and entertainers here in the Interior. We want to celebrate our Indigeneity, our ways of knowing and being through the voices, through the songs and dances.鈥�

The Pellsqepts Spring Winds Music Festival will feature traditional St鈥檃t鈥檌mc grizzly bear dancers, Bernice Jensen & Pow Wow Crew, the DerRic Starlight Show, Rain Penner August, Ashcroft鈥檚 contemporary Indigenous fusion group The Melawmen Collective and Juno Award-winning singer-songwriter and ROOTSandBLUES festival-favourite George Leach.

Made possible thanks to the support of PacifiCan and the Government of Canada, the one-day-only event runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, March 18, at 2471 Pierre鈥檚 Point Road in Salmon Arm.

For more information about the Pellsqepts Spring Winds Music Festival and the 31st annual ROOTSandBLUES Festival this summer, visit the SAFMS online at rootsandblues.ca or call 250-833-4096.

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