Camai Festival

This year’s festival brought three packed days of performances and events to the Bethel Regional High School gymnasium. Once again, it showed that the beating of traditional frame drums resonates with Elders and young alike.

The 2026 Cama’i Dance Festival came to a close with a final pamyua — an encore song from the Inuit-soul group aptly named for such a moment.

The second day of the 2026 Cama’i Dance Festival offered up 12 jam-packed hours of performances and events.

In a flurry of dance fans, drum beats, and applause, the 2026 Cama’i Dance Festival kicked off Friday, March 27 in the Bethel Regional High School gym. An audience spanning from Elders to infants filled chairs and bleachers for an evening of musical events and tributes.

The 2026 Cama’i Dance Festival kicks off at 5 p.m. this evening (March 27) at Bethel Regional High School. Among the featured performers is the Inuit soul group Pamyua, who return to the festival after their debut 30 years ago.

Each year, Elders, dancers, and Cama’i attendees line up on Saturday afternoon of the festival to load paper plates full of the bounty of food from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

Miss Cama’i represents the Yup’ik, Cup’ik, and Athabaskan people of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta at events and pageants throughout her reign. This year’s winner ran on a platform of existing gracefully between the Native and western worlds so Yup’ik and Cup’ik people can thrive.

Over the years, the community has gained a reputation for serving up high-energy performances in their Cama’i appearances. The current leader of Chevak Tanqik said he remembers it always being this way.

This year, the Cama'i Dance Festival honored the late Cakicenaq Stanley Waska for his contributions to preserving dance and potlatch traditions, immortalized in the award-winning film "Uksuum Cauyai: The Drums of Winter."

This year’s theme of Ciuliamta Cauyait, or “Drums of Our Ancestors,” highlights the roots of traditional yuraq revival that remain on full display in Bethel’s premiere annual gathering.