Over Labor Day weekend, the Western Alaska coastal village of Toksook Bay came alive as people from across the region flocked to the annual Blackberry Festival. While stormy weather got in the way of any actual berry picking, this didn't dampen the mood. Instead, people filled the school gymnasium to dance the night away and celebrate a gathering launched nearly 30 years ago.
It is an especially nasty day in Toksook Bay on the Bering Sea coast. All the flights are grounded, the streets are deserted, and dogs are cowering on front porches in the village of fewer than 700 people. But at the Nelson Island School gymnasium, bands are sound-checking, raffle tickets are being torn, cases of soda pop are stacked high, and people are filtering in to celebrate the three-day Blackberry Festival.
Many people had intended to pick blackberries during the festival, but on Sept. 2, even the geese weren't willing to brave 30-mile-per-hour winds and heavy rains to harvest them from the imposing hill framing Toksook Bay.
Brody Dull said that he hadn't seen anyone crazy enough to pick in the storm.
"Nobody at all. Everybody was just all hunkered down today," Dull said.
The Blackberry Festival used to be a lot more than three consecutive nights of live music, dancing, and raffles. Dull grew up 14 miles away in Nightmute and traveled with his family regularly to attend the festival.
"My first time attending a Blackberry fest as a kid, they used to have so many activities like bike races, kayak races, all that other stuff," Dull said. "And it's just, it's a lot different than how it used to be in the past."
But Dull also said that this year's festival was a huge step up from the complete lack of community activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The town's just been on lockdown for the past couple of years. And nobody was really allowed to do anything," Dull said. "But yeah, having this festival back and running, it's pretty great."
The blackberries on Nelson Island are known more widely as crowberries, and they are just one piece of an abundant coastal harvest that includes salmonberries; blueberries; migratory birds; otters; seals; beluga whales; and, of course, salmon.
Bringing people together
Florence Terchik worked as a suicide prevention coordinator in the mid-90s when the idea came about to create an annual Labor Day weekend celebration to bring communities across the region together. The founders called it the Blackberry Festival simply because this is the time of year when these berries become ripe for the picking.
"It was supposed to be a sober event. There were a lot of activities when it first started: blackberry picking contests, akutaq contests, kuspuk sewing contests, Yup’ik Jeopardy," Terchik said.
This year's festival didn't disappoint when it came to live music. For six straight hours, people of all ages grabbed partners and took to the mud-caked basketball court to dance. Children led each other on wild soda pop-fueled chases through the swaying mass of people.
With the exception of local favorite Tundra Mix, the bands came from all over. Pilot Bread flew in from Anchorage, the Northern Lights Band came from Napakiak, and the Akulmiut Tundra Band traveled by boat from Atmautluak.
The latter was by far the youngest band at the festival, playing alongside old-timers of the rural Alaska music scene. But they weren't afraid to play the oldies if it meant getting people out of their seats to dance.
Chris Nicholai, who like the other members of the Akulmiut Tundra Band is able to rotate freely between drums, guitar, bass, and vocals, said that the band isn't afraid to tweak the classics.
"Some of the older music that we play we put in different rhythms, put different beats with it. But most of it we try to stay classic," Nicholai said.
On Sept. 2, the music was almost constant right up until 1 a.m., with the only exceptions being brief speeches in Yugtun by Elders about the importance of education, and a series of well-timed 50/50 raffles that kept people in the gymnasium.
Asking around, no one could say what the future holds for the Blackberry Festival. But this year, the joy that it brought those who braved the weather for a dance party was on full display.
