Back to Batoche Days wraps up its 50th anniversary with record attendance

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Joe Blyan has attended every Back to Batoche Days since the first festival was organized in 1970. He remembers vehicles arriving with their belongings strung to the roof of each vehicle as a few hundred people celebrated in an open field back then.

Now, he marvels as tens of thousands of people arrived at the historic site roughly 80 kilometres north of Saskatoon to what’s grown to become a global gathering place for Métis people.

“This like a Mecca,” he said. “For us, it is. This is the last place we dared to fight to protect our rights as Métis people.”

In May 1885, Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont led a Métis provisional government, making their final stand against armed federal government forces in Batoche, effectively ending the 1885 Northwest Resistance.

More than any other year, Blyan and others said they felt that connection back to the land as droves of people showed up for the half century milestone.

“This is where our Métis life is. When you talk about Métis people, you immediately think about Louis Riel, Gabriel Dumont. These are the people that fought, but there are many others – many kookums and mooshums that died for us to be here today,” Blyan said.

Métis Nation-Saskatchewan’s Minister of Tourism, Brent Digness humbly estimated at least 10,000 people visited the grounds on Saturday alone, saying that number could be as high as 12,000 when organizers complete the final tally this week.

“Just to cheer, the crowd and the excitement and enthusiasm. Getting back to meet with each other and coming together after the pandemic. This was a great turnout this year,” he said.

While he’s already thinking of ways to improve the weekend for next year, he couldn’t imagine such large crowds 10 years ago as plenty of familiar faces returned and plenty of newcomers joined the celebration.

Muriel Perry attended her first Batoche days, and she was taken back at how polite and welcoming everyone was.

“A lot of happiness, peace (and) friendliness,” she said with a smile.

Rosemarie Lavallee-McPherson drove in from Manitoba for Batoche days. She's been about seven or so times before, but this one is going to stay with her for years to come.

“The friendships – it’s going to be lifelong. There’s no one thing that is special. Everything about Batoche is special,” she said.

With massive crowds and memories for a lifetime, Blyan and Lavallee-McPherson are proud to see a festival that grew from a few hundred people in an open field to a massive festival enjoyed by tens of thousands of people, and they can't wait to see what's in store for the next 50 years.