There are athletes coming to perform at the 2015 Canada Winter Games, and there are stage artists coming to perform.
Other than the sports elements, the other key area of public focus during the CWGs are the artistic elements, primarily music. From coast to coast to coast, every region of Canada and many of the nation's diverse subcultures are represented in the public music festival.
Every province and territory is represented from across the country," said Karen Jeffery, manager of ceremonies and culture for the Games. "70 per cent of the artists come from BC, and 40 per cent come from the region. Many perform in French, many are aboriginal, there is a mix of men and women, there is a mix of ethnic backgrounds, so it is a representation as best we could of the nation. They are all professional artists - they make the majority of their living by doing musicians - and we've tried to represent as many cross-cultural features as we can, and as many genres of music as we can.
The top of the concert hotlist is Tanya Tagaq, the Arctic cultural heroine fresh off her win of the Polaris Music Prize. Her ethereal throat singing is to the ear what the northern lights are to the eye.
Representing the Atlantic coast and the first interface between old worlds - Newfoundland and Labrador - comes Canadas foremost Canadian Celtic bard Allan Doyle. The affable co-founder of Great Big Sea will ensure the Canada Winter Games has no ordinary day.
Moving wildly west, other headliners rooted in the national identity are radio-rowdy country musicians Tim Hicks and Chad Brownlee.
Classical cello diva Morag Northey touches on the oldest of music styles meeting the modern era.
Modern folk has its top shelf names arriving in P.G. as well, combining new and old genres like buzz band Said The Whale, super-group Mounties (the combo of solo star Hawksley Workman, Steve Bays of Hot Hot Heat and Ryan Dahle of Limblifter), and blues crunchers The Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer. Add in Good For Grapes, Delhi 2 Dublin, Ben Caplan and Sarah MacDougall - all of them folky headline grabbers from all corners of the country.
Pushing forward into the ultra modern stratospheres of music, major urban acts like rappers Classified and Skratch Bastid are coming, livewire electronica influences are warped into Dear Rouge, Willa (featuring soloist Ali Milner) and Radio Radio, and sound spinners like D!ggy The DJ will pound the beats.
Children will get the act being hailed as the next Raffi, the funlingual CBC-TV singing star Will Stroet.
Theatre lovers will get the tour de force drama Jake's Gift by actor/playwright Julia Mackey.
Francophones will get French Canadian stars like Alex Nevsky, Bon Debarras, Vishtn and Lisa LeBlanc.
Aboriginal headliners like A Tribe Called Red and Indian City light up the marquee with roots so deep they can't be counted in mere trips around the sun.
Even the Grammy Awards are represented in the form of Spanish-English superstar Alex Cuba.
From theatre to funk, aboriginal and francophone musicians, childrens artists to throat singing, an impressive array of performers will entertain Prince George residents, 2015 Games participants and visitors at Games time, said CWG chief executive officer Stuart Ballantyne.
Other acts on the bill include All Mighty Voice, The Boom Booms, Brandon Isaak, Kenny "Blues Boss" Wayne, Tim Williams, The Fugitives, and more still to be announced.
Jeffery said it was important to the Games organizers to pick a who's who of local/regional acts, to show that our own area's performers are as "at home" on the mainstage as they are on the streets and roads of northern B.C.
Already mentioned are Jake's Gift from Wells and Alex Cuba from Smithers, and they will be joined by Rachelle Van Zanten (Francois Lake), Black Spruce Bog (combo from P.G., Burns Lake, Prince Rupert areas), Folkie Strum Strum (Peace-country combo), Chimney Swallows (including P.G.'s Raghu Lokanathan and former Smithereen Corwin Fox), Derek Joyce (P.G.), Doug Koyama (several Cariboo towns), Jessey DaCosta (P.G.), Joey Only & The Outlaws (Wells), King Crow & The Ladies From Hell (Terrace and, with nine members, other parts as well), Kevin Zakresky (P.G.) and his Prince George Symphony Orchestra (also P.G., of course), Naomi Kavka (P.G.), Navaz (Persian P.G.), Out Of Alba (Celtic P.G.), Rosewood's Diary (Vanderhoof), Will Kuklis (P.G.), Jerusha White (Fort St. James and P.G.), and others to be named.
"It was awesome to arrange the local content," said Jeffery, who is a Cariboo resident herself. "Along with the musicians, we have a lot of visual arts based in this area. We are working with the Two Rivers Art Gallery on an exhibit during the Games, we have the art market and Artnerships Program in partnership with the Community Arts Council, there was the 'gathering of the rocks' art project, the VIP gifts are connected to local artists, the medals were designed by a local artist, so in many ways the Canada Winter Games has been able to showcase the really strong arts community we have around here."
All these performers will be available for the public free of charge and held at family-friendly times of the evening. Some will take place in the downtown Games Village area at the recently re-named Canada Games Plaza in front of the Civic Centre during the nightly medal ceremonies, or at Art Space inside Books And Company.
A few special events will be held elsewhere: a PGSO double feature at Vanier Hall, the staging of Jake's Gift at The Legion, and The Boom Booms at the Treasure Cove Showroom.
The entire shebang is being held under the banner of the long-standing and beloved Coldsnap Festival, since that organization stood down its usual music lineup held this time of year, in order to work with the CWGs to present all these acts at this special two-week extravaganza.
"We've called this the 2015 Canada Games Coldsnap Festival, that's is the banner we are all working under," Jeffery said. "We are delighted to be partnering with them to bring this festival to life."
The acts and mainstage are presented in part by the BC Lottery Corporation and Treasure Cove Casino, the federal government, provincial government and City of Prince George.
More artistic features and performances - like the opening and closing ceremonies - are still be announced by the CWG organizers, and some will be surprises.
