Tickets for this year’s Plant Festival (the first ever!) have quickly sold out, but the Yukon Plant Guild has its sights set on so much more than this first festival …
“We want to connect herbalists, wilderness educators, gardeners, foragers, natural body-care formulators, artists and others interested and involved with plants”
Angelune Drouin
From the beginner who can barely keep a houseplant alive, to the herbalist with dirt under their fingernails, everyone has been invited to the Yukon’s first Plant Festival. The event is organized by the newly-formed Yukon Plant Guild and will take root on Saturday, July 19, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Herbal Hearth in the Wheaton River Valley.
“For this first edition of the Yukon’s Plant Festival, we want to create a community and a gathering of people around plants,” says Angelune Drouin, one of the original founders of the Yukon Plant Guild. “We want to connect local people from different interests and fields, together, through their shared love of plants.”
The festival promises to be inclusive—no plant expertise required. “You do not need to know anything about plants to attend the festival,” Drouin emphasizes. “We invite everyone, from the curious beginner to the knowledgeable plant expert, to come to the festival so we can all share our knowledge and passion for the plant world.”
Get your hands dirty
This is not the typical sit-and-listen event. People can get their hands dirty with hands-on workshops, guided medicinal plant walks, and demonstrations that will give attendees a new perspective on weeds in their garden. Local practitioners, who have turned their plant obsessions into their life’s work, will share their knowledge: Beverley Gray (The Boreale Herbal), Amber Berard-Althouse (The Land Heals), Elissa Ciullo (a.k.a. The Garden Witch), Helen O’Connor, Jolene Billwiller (Spruce Cottage Farm), Michele Genest (The Boreal Gourmet), Randy Lamb (Downtown Urban Gardeners), Raven Padmos (Wolf Willow Botanicals), and Sylvie Binette (Heavenly Wild), with more speakers to be announced.
“Everyone will have a chance to participate in a plant walk out on the land, do a hands-on workshop and participate in a plant-related presentation or demonstration,” Drouin explains. “The point is to make connections and to learn about plants. It’s all about the plants.”
The organizers point out that the festival is centred around local people and local expertise. “We are featuring local people who work with plants from herbalists, farmers, urban gardeners, fibre workers and artists, to vendors and makers selling locally-made products sourced from plants,” says Lyndi Proudfoot, another founding member of the Yukon Plant Guild.
In addition to that, there will be the local food truck Chickadee Wagon, to keep everyone fed. Local musician Annie Avery will provide the soundtrack. The organizers state that they couldn`t do it without local volunteers.
Attendees can browse locally-made products sourced from Yukon plants and beyond, supporting the people who have turned their passion into a business.
The Yukon Plant Guild, founded just last year, has bigger ambitions than a single festival. The non-profit organization aims to help people to work with and learn from the plants around them, connecting everyone from weekend gardeners to professional herbalists.
“We want to connect herbalists, wilderness educators, gardeners, foragers, natural body-care formulators, artists and others interested and involved with plants,” Drouin says. “Our role as the Yukon Plant Guild is to create space and opportunities for people attending the festival to exchange local knowledge while discovering new skills and ways they can work with plants.”
The goal goes beyond just sharing information. “We also hope people will leave inspired and with a desire to build relationships and work with the plants around us,” Drouin adds.
While this first festival is intentionally small-scale, the organizers are already dreaming bigger. “We are Yukon Plant Guild founders, from left to right: Angelune Drouin (president), Sylvie Gewehr (treasurer) and Lyndi Proudfoot (vice-president) taking a small and slow approach for the moment, but we would certainly love to eventually be able to host a multi-day festival in the future,” Drouin says.
The festival represents something bigger than workshops and plant walks: it is about building community through shared curiosity about the natural world that surrounds us. With backing from Lotteries Yukon, the event aims to cultivate a growing movement of plant awareness.
Whether people are hoping to finally understand why their tomatoes keep dying, are curious about which local plants can soothe a headache, or just want to spend a day surrounded by fellow plant enthusiasts, the Yukon Plant Festival promises something for everyone. After all, in a territory where the growing season is precious and the connection to the land runs deep, celebrating plants feels like the most natural thing in the world.Check out yukonplantguild.ca to learn more about the Yukon Plant Guild and about future events and festivals.
