Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/201540
outrageously bold red comforters. I pass the next three days and two nights here at Ness Creek. I watch the Maverick kids work and receive their thoughtful insights into education and destiny. I In its inaugural year back in 1991, the Ness get some counselling from camp man Bill Creek Music Festival was essentially a tree-planton my midlife crisis, plus one of his tarot er's bush party attended by perhaps 200 people. card readings. Gord is busy by day, but in This unlikely seedling has grown to become a the evening he tells me stories, including towering icon, with attendance now surging to one about a shaman he met in the '70s who predicted he would the sun sets on the annual Ness Creek Music Festival. have a career in forestry, just not of the tree-cutting kind. Though it would have been possible to race through the whole Ness trail system twice over, it seems like a greedy thing to do. I leave some to discover for next time. I meant to cross into the adjacent national park while I was in the neighbourhood, maybe break some trail, but the notion fades. Ness Creek is plenty for me. thousands. Staring success in the face, the Ness community made the enlightened decision to cap The Ness Creek festival site offers year-round ticket sales to the 3,000-or-so that the physical rustic cabin rentals, $60-$90/night, based on site can sustain. It also decided to channel its double occupancy. creative energy into many new projects. ℹ 306-227-9453; nesslinlake.com; As a result, numerous other activities are waskesiuwildernessregion.com/ness-creek-site 18 W e s t W o r l d >> underway here each year, including two other, smaller music festivals. The pickers and grinners are out in force for the Country at the Creek music festival in late June. And the campfire strumming continues in August at the Northern Lights Bluegrass & Old Tyme Music Festival. Bi-annually since 2006, the Emma International Collaboration brings artists from around the globe to Ness Creek to make collaborative art on-site. For its part, the Saskatchewan Boreal Forest Learning Centre introduces school-children to nature and First Nations boreal culture. The Ness Creek Cultural Society, meanwhile, is dedicated to promoting the arts and ecological awareness at events across the province. In the works is a stand-up paddleboard regatta. The planned Jack Millikin Centre will be a year-round structure that houses an indoor performance space, artisan workspaces and project areas for school kids. Oh, and it will surely work brilliantly as a place for cross-country skiers to warm up. • —A.C. ℹ nesscreek.com, countryatthecreek.ca, northernlightsbluegrass.ca Courtesy ness Creek Music Festival much ado about ness winter 2013 p14-19_Getaway_OutAbout.indd 18 13-10-18 10:15 AM