One Melfort back alley will once again be teeming with artists on July 17 as the ninth annual Back Alley Tour returns for another year.
The annual event takes place in the alley behind Northern Lights Gallery between Burrows and MacLeod Avenue East.
Event organizer and Northern Lights Gallery owner Sandra Dancey said the goal is to get like-minded artists together to show off their work. With artists from Prince Albert, Nipawin, Tisdale and Melfort and beyond in attendance, Dancey is looking forward to the event
“We’re always excited,” she said. “It’s fun. It’s a good thing to do in the summer—nice excuse to be outside—as long as it’s not too smoky.”
With more than 50 artists expected, Dancey said this will be their biggest Back Alley Tour ever.
“We have more entertainers and some really talented people,” she explained. “There is going to be a couple of food trucks this year as well as the Legion and TJ’s always has snacks out the back door for people.”
Entertainment on the Ripley Ford Entertainment Stage includes The Lenvale Elevators, Byron Olson, the Lowland Sons, Darlene Tuleta and Shelby Murphy, among others.
“Shelby Murphy is a hometown favourite. She’s really talented. I think she’ll be going places, and then Gabi Rayne is another one. She’s a Tisdale woman who just recorded an album recently. She just released it a week or two ago, I can’t remember which. She’s really talented too, and she will also be here,” Dancey said.
Olson is best known for his association with Ness Creek.
“Byron’s been around for years, and he’s an amazingly talented player and a friend of ours. The Saskatchewan music community is pretty small. Everybody knows everybody,” Dancey said.
The list of artists in attendance keeps growing with prominent local artists like Jim Mason making appearances.
“There are all kinds of new artists coming. There’s going to be lots of kid friendly, family friendly little craft projects and workshops and things kids can do while they’re here, which is really nice,” Dancey said.
Dancey pointed to returning favourites like Al Jardine and the Melfort Wood Carvers and BAM Woodturning having demonstrations.
“There’s some 3D art as in 3D printer created pieces of art. It’s hard to picture it until you see them, and they’re just amazing. There’s going to be a spray paint artist here, so hopefully it’s not too windy. The wind will dictate where he gets placed, of course, and he always says that up front. He’s really good about it,” Dancey said.
Melfort Amateur Dramatics (MAD) will be having an interactive mural display.
“There’s a few different Potters. There’s all kinds of cool stuff. The best is just check out the whole list of names because it goes on for quite a while,” Dancey said.
Another artist Dancey pointed out was Monyq Fashion Design.
She is relatively new and she designs clothing more related to grads, proms and weddings, but she does some pretty incredible stuff. That’s one of the new people at this.
Another prominent artist with ties to the Melfort area who will be in attendance is Jerry Whitehead, an Indigenous artist originally from James Smith Cree Nation.
“If you look him up online, you’ll start to realise he’s kind of a big deal there.
His art is everywhere. It’s kind of fun when you get looking. There’s giant cement turtles in Edmonton on one of The Walking paths and all of the shells of these turtles are Jerry’s art,” Dancey said.
He also has art in Market Mall in Saskatoon and all over Vancouver.
“It goes way beyond that. I couldn’t list all the communities that have his art. He likes to interact with school kids, he likes to have sort of a cooperative approach to his work. He still does most of it, but he gets a kick out of teaching the young kids how to do it,” she said.
The list is so long that Dancey encourages everyone to come out and see the art.
She also thanked the sponsors for their support of the event.
“Ripley Ford, as you might have noticed, has been involved in pretty much everything. That’s why it’s the Ripley Ford Entertainment stage. that’s courtesy of them,” she said.
She also thanked businesses in the area for allowing the Back Alley Tour to expand beyond the original back alley.
“There’s also other businesses like Royal LePage and Trail Tire that let us just use their space for this, because if we just had only the alley, we would be very crowded,” Dancey said.
The Back Alley Tour will run from 2 p.m. until 8 p.m. on Thursday July 17.
