BETHEL, Alaska — The 2016 Cama-i Dance Festival starts Friday night in Bethel. The festival will feature performers from all over the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and beyond.
This weekend, dozens of singers and dancers will take the stage for the 2016 Cama-i Dance Festival. But it’s the Bethel Traditional Dancers who will get the celebration started in their hometown tonight. They’ll perform first, after organizers light the ceremonial Cama-i flame.
Once the Bethel performers take their bows, other singers and dancers will get their turns over the course of the three-day festival. The scheduled performers hail from all over western Alaska — from Hooper Bay to Barrow and Toksook Bay to Chevak.
The long list includes Byron Nicholai, who’s set to perform twice. Last year, the Toksook Bay teenager released his first album, “I Am Yup’ik,” and he’ll perform at Cama-i on Friday and Sunday.
The festival will also feature a Y-K Delta Memoriam on Saturday. The slideshow of photographs will honor members of Y-K communities who have died in the last year.
Sponsored by the Bethel Council on the Arts, the 2016 Cama-i Dance Festival starts Friday at 5 p.m. at the Bethel Regional High School.
