Let’s celebrate fathers (and exceptional grandfathers, uncles, older brothers and other father figures in our lives)—not just for one day, this year, but all summer long, Here are a few ideas to get you started:
For the music, art or culture lovers
The Kluane Mountain Bluegrass Festival is over, and the Atlin Arts & Music Festival has been cancelled this year, but there are still some great musical happenings coming up in the territory.
Tickets are still available to see Broken Social Scene at the Yukon Arts Centre on July 14 at 6 and 9 p.m.
Dawson City Music Festival is taking place this year from July 21 to 23, and the Keno City Music Festival is running from August 4 to 6 (and is free!). Why not make plans to go to a festival together?
A bit closer to Whitehorse, the Paradise Music Festival, for electronic music fans, is going to be happening August 4 to 6 (weekend or Saturday passes are available online at paradisemusicfestival.ca).
The Adäka Cultural Festival (June 29 to July 5) also has a great lineup of concerts, performances and workshops, every year. Check out their website, adakafestival.ca, for registration details and information on this year’s events.
For the more low-key dads, you could pick up a gift card at Road Dogs Music Supply and let him treat himself to some vinyl or some new gear of his choice.
For the athletic types or adventurers
For the avid runner in your life, stop by Mac’s Fireweed Books and pick up a copy of Brendan Leonard’s book I Hate Running and You Can Too: How to Get Started, Keep Going, and Make Sense of an Irrational Passion. It might inspire him to sign up for the Klondike Road Relay (or at least make him laugh).
Local businesses such as Yukan Canoe and Tatshenshini Expediting offer all kinds of canoe and kayak courses, and the latter also does day trips and expeditions (check out yukancanoe.com and tatshenshiniyukon.com).
A campground permit might not seem like a very fancy gift, but it’s the gift that will keep on giving, all summer long. A Yukon resident annual campground permit is $200 this year, and Yukon resident seniors (age 65 plus) get a 50 per cent discount on daily and annual permits.
The Finnish brand, Fiskars, makes a really awesome little hatchet/axe that’s great to have in your car or take along on a backcountry camping trip (Canadian Tire usually has a few in stock). And Jetboil, an American manufacturer, has a variety of popular and lightweight backpacking stoves and camping systems that are really useful when enjoying a Yukon summer outdoors (if you’re on a budget, a simple Coleman stove will do the trick, too).
If you want to splurge on an unforgettable trip to somewhere without a road access, Kluane Glacier Air Tours, in Haines Junction, offers tours to see Mount Logan and the “world’s largest non-polar icefields” from the air. Or gift a boat ride with Tutchone Tours to historic Fort Selkirk, for a day (or you can even get a weekend package).
For the cinephiles, the foodies or the gardeners
A Yukon Film Society (YFS) membership is an inexpensive way to gift your loved one all sorts of membership benefits and discounts for an entire year. An Exhibition Membership is $10; and a Film Lovers Membership, $20. Both offer discounts on Yukon Theatre tickets, YFS film screenings (including the Available Light Film Festival & Available Light Cinema), and the second also includes free borrowing from the YFS DVD/BluRay Library. A Production Membership ($50) gives you all of the above, along with a discount on YFS Media Arts workshops, access to production and post-production equipment, and consultation on production and project development.
A GoPro Hero11 (or one of the many different, great all-in-one video cameras on the market these days) is a wonderful gift for someone who loves making home videos of their families or who loves to record their outdoor adventures.
The garden centres around town don’t have many annuals and perennials left in stock, but consider gifting a beautiful, hardy tree or a shrub. It’s still early enough in the growing season for its roots to get established and then come back, year after year. Make some fun memories by planting it together.
Outdoor pizza ovens are also very fun and popular right now. Ooni, a company based in Scotland, makes a portable outdoor pizza oven that may be just the thing to make this summer even more delicious. What better excuse to get together with friends and family than an outdoor pizza party?
If all else fails, a subscription to a streaming service, such as Amazon Prime, Apple TV or Discovery +, is always a dependable option. Shows like Ted Lasso, Yellowstone or The Last of Us are bingeworthy (and dad-worthy) choices and can be enjoyed once again when the summer has drawn to an end.
Celebrating the fathers (biological and not) in our lives doesn’t necessarily have to mean spending a lot of money, though.
More hands-on and budget-friendly ideas include helping out with some yardwork or picking up a woodcutting permit and cutting firewood together for the winter. You could also buy yourself a fishing license, if you don’t have one already, and take an afternoon off to go out on the water together. Maybe pack a simple picnic, with some homemade treats and maybe some locally brewed beer, and celebrate the day outside (June 18 also happens to be International Picnic Day).Expensive gifts and big adventures can be fun, but showing a loved one that you are willing to make time for them can actually be the best present. After all, that’s what really great dads do for us too, isn’t it?
