Manito Ahbee Festival Opens Three Days of Celebration in the Heart of Winnipeg

The Manito Ahbee Festival is back at Canada Life Centre in downtown Winnipeg from Oct. 30 to Nov. 1, with a Friday of youth programming and evening shows ahead of two days of powwow.

For Grace Redhead, the festival's special events, cultural and engagement manager, the return is about the people who keep coming back. Redhead, who is from Shamattawa First Nation, started with Manito Ahbee 13 years ago as a volunteer.

In Winnipeg, she told IND in an Oct. 26 interview, everyone is connected. “It's not six degrees of separation, it's like less than one, and they're usually family,” she said.

Her first role was helping adjudicate applications for Miss Manito Ahbee. Over the years she took on more, leading the organization of Grand Entry with the arena directors and later managing volunteers. She has worked on the powwow with Candice Hart for about four years, and this year she is learning to take it over from her.

People she grew up dancing with now have daughters in the program. “It's now their daughters that are running,” she said. Redhead stopped judging a few years ago, she said, because she has known many of the young people since they were toddlers.

Room to Visit

Manito Ahbee spent its first 10 years at the arena, then called the MTS Centre. After the Atlanta Thrashers moved to Winnipeg and brought back the Jets in 2011, the festival had to work around the NHL schedule, and then came the pandemic, so it moved between other venues, Redhead said. It always had its best feedback at Canada Life Centre. Dancers and spectators want space, she said: room for bags and suitcases, and somewhere families can spread out and visit.

Downtown is also easier for the many volunteers and spectators who take the bus, she said; when the festival was outside the city, getting there was a barrier. The arena gives more room for people who need wheelchair service or assisted seating, with hotels and restaurants nearby, and she said True North Sports + Entertainment has been welcoming and accommodating.

A Friday Beyond the Powwow

Friday is built for more than powwow dancers, Redhead said. The schedule starts with NextGEN, the festival's youth empowerment event, where about 3,000 students were registered as of Oct. 26, close to capacity, to hear from motivational speakers, influencers and musicians.

Then comes the Red Road Carpet, a chance to wear the ribbon skirt you've been saving, dress up and take photos, followed by Ignite the Night. Its lineup mixes returning favourites, like the Red Road Cultural Clothing & Wearable Art Showcase, with something new: the Auntie Awards.

The Auntie Awards celebrate people and families on the powwow trail, with categories such as best beaded earrings and best war cry, drawn from families' submissions about why they travel the trail. “It's just meant to be fun and celebrate folks in our community,” Redhead said.

The night also brings The Heartbeat Returns: Women's Jingle Dress and Men's Grass Dancer Showdown, the return of the Showcase Showdown that was a hit in 2025. This year, it's Jingle Dress versus Grass Dance. The interactive floor stage is back too, Redhead said, with lights and graphics that set it apart from a typical dance special.

Beyond the Arena Floor

Redhead's invitation is to stay for more than the powwow. The marketplace brings in vendors including some from New Zealand and Australia who came to Winnipeg for the World Indigenous Business Forum and are staying for the festival. The Ignite Our Spirit Stage on the lower event level hosts musical performances and cultural dance teachings, and the weekend ends there Sunday with Jig N Jam, which she called the biggest crowd favourite. She is also looking forward to the woodland dance specials, one of the newer categories.

How to Attend

The festival is at Canada Life Centre, 300 Portage Avenue, in Treaty No. 1 Territory. All times are Winnipeg time, from the festival's posted schedule, which is subject to change.

Friday, Oct. 30: Ignite the Night doors open at 5 p.m. The Red Road Carpet has a 5 p.m. call and goes live at 6 p.m., followed by the arena preshow from 6:30 to 7 p.m. and the live show at 7 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 31: Grand Entries at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.; Ignite Our Spirit Stage, 1 to 3 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 1: Grand Entry at 11 a.m.; Ignite Our Spirit Stage, 1 to 4 p.m.; Jig N Jam at 7 p.m.

Marketplace and food vendors: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets are linked through the festival's website. Canada Life Centre lists public elevators, accessible seating and an accessible drop-off area on Donald Street; choose the accessible-seating option when buying tickets if needed.

The People Behind the Weekend

Redhead's favourite moment is Sunday's Grand Entry. Saturday's are the biggest, she said, but by Sunday people have had a day to find their way. “They're settled, they know the space, they know the schedule.” The festival's more than 75 volunteers come into that Grand Entry, and Miss Manito Ahbee gives her opening remarks after it.

She credits the people who brought her along: Candice Hart, her go-to for everything, and executive director Lisa Meeches, who always has words of encouragement. Hart, Suzanne Mayham and Meeches have been open about how they've done things while backing new ideas, she said.

The next generation has a path, too. Sacred Hoop, a festival training program, introduces youth as young as 15 to stage management, writing and other work. Redhead sees her own years of learning as an informal version of that path.

Community sponsors matter as well, she said: people who come in and say they don't have much, but want to help. Manito Ahbee is a nonprofit, and the work on grants, reports and fundraising runs all year; planning for 2027 has already begun. “We do a lot of work throughout the year to fundraise for this,” she said.