Festival Internacional Cervantino—one the world’s largest performing arts festivals—has announced the line-up for the 2019 edition themed Migrations: The Guiding Thread. Taking over the city of Guanajuato, Mexico from October 9 to 27, and with Canada participating as this year’s guest country, a number of Inuit artists will be featured throughout the annual three-week event.

Polaris Prize-nominated, Montreal-based singer-songwriter Elisapie will take the stage at El Trasnoche on October 11 to perform selections from her critically acclaimed record Ballad of a Runaway Girl (2018), among others from her pervious two studio albums. The artist is currently finishing her European tour with dates scheduled across Canada and France this fall.

Alongside the musician, Iqlauit-based multidisciplinary artist Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory will appear over two nights at Teatro Cervantes on October 25 and 26 in collaboration with Toronto-based Evalyn Parry of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre Company. The pair will re-imagine their Dora award-winning production Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools, a site-specific show that is more concert than play.“There are aspects of the performance that are done by the audience and that are about conversation with the audience,” Williamson Bathory told the Inuit Art Quarterly in late 2018. “Each place we perform will have different questions and sparks for conversations in which people can participate.” The production explores humour, humility, fear and sexuality as these two performers from the North and South come together to weave a story of climate, culture and history. Kiinalik has previously been mounted at PuSh International Performing Arts Festival in Vancouver, BC. Espace Libre in Montreal, QC, and Luminato in Toronto, ON. 

Festival Cervantino will also feature additional Indigenous performers from Canada including electronic music group A Tribe Called Red, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s Going Home Star: Truth and Reconciliation, Haisla nation Hip-hop duo Snotty Nose Rez Kids and the Dancers of Damelahamid’s performance of Mînowin. Canada’s participation in the festival is supported by The Canada Council for the Arts in partnership with Global Affairs Canada and the Embassy of Canada in Mexico.