The solstice sun barely set over the Driftpile Valley as North Country Fair filled the boreal forest with music, handmade goods, ceremony, costumes and late-night celebration.

The 2026 fair ran June 19 to 21 at the North Country Campground near Joussard, Alta. It is an all-genre outdoor family music festival. It features rustic camping, a boreal forest venue, food, craft vendors, workshops and children’s activities.

Those elements were visible across the grounds. Decorative signage guided fairgoers between stages, vendors and gathering spaces. Where booths offered everything from fibre goods and forged metal to wellness work, prints, clothing and baskets.

The festival, which dates back to 1979, has long been tied to the summer solstice and to a culture of camping, music and community. A 2026 preview in South Peace News said the event was expected to bring thousands of people to the region. The preview quoted fair media co-ordinator Anneke Penner describing it as a three-day festival with four stages, river beaches, workshops, vendors and family activities.

Music remained central throughout the weekend. In one performance, Ashley Isadore sang Remember Me on stage, adding a quiet, emotional moment to the fairs lively atmosphere. Indigenous dancers also performed to traditional drum music. This brought movement, regalia and song into the festival’s broader mix of stage shows, workshops and informal gatherings.

The fair also featured formal fashion for those fairgoers who chose to participate in Formal Friday. Including one young couple who walked the grounds in Victorian attire on friday evening.

A stilt performer moved through the grounds above the crowd, while vendors and visitors filled the pathways below. The scene was part market, part music festival and part temporary village, with campers, families, artists and returning fairgoers sharing the same space.

Camping is free during the fair, and the festival’s own ticket information says children 12 and under are admitted free. Travel Alberta describes North Country Fair as family-friendly, with the Driftpile River wrapping the boreal forest venue and live music continuing until dawn. All music must be live at North Country Fair, there are various signs displayed on the grounds that read “no canned music.”

The fair also carries a community-giving element. South Peace News reported that Sunday gate receipts for 2026 were to be donated to the Sucker Creek Emergency Women’s Shelter. Additional donations were also accepted.

North Country Fair remains a solstice gathering where the official program matters, but so does everything that happens between the stages.

Sara Driedger
Lakeside Leader