Innovation, tradition and a mysterious basement: Winnipeg New Music Festival kicks off for 26th year running

A car used as a percussion instrument, a chamber performance in a long-empty basement and a 12-hour concert/slumber-party in a downtown sportsplex.

Those are just a few of the festivities on the agenda for Winnipeg'sNew Music Festival, billed as "the best week of the year,"which kicked off on Saturday for the 26th year running.

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Festivals gone by have included performances at the Pan-Am Pooland "chamber punk" music played on electric guitars alongside an animated fairy talefrom 1920s Germany.

This year, organizer Alexander Mickelthwate says the theme is Canada's 150th birthday.

The festival began Saturday night, featuring a piece composed by Canadian composer Christos Hatzis focusing on the impact of climate change on human migration patterns. Alongside an orchestra, the piece featured Inuk throat singer Tiffany Ayalik and Egyptian-Canadian singer MaryemHassan-Tollar. Mickelthwate conducted the performance himself.

"It's this amazing coming together of cultures, which Ithink is so important nowadays with all this division," he said of the piece.

Ghosts of the Hudson's Bay Building

Festival highlights include a performance headed up by composer Meredith Monk the "huge international star" of the event, Mickelthwate says and theGhosts of the Hudson's Bay Building, which will be held in the basement of the downtown Bay location.

Mickelthwate said the audience will sit together in the cavernous space, with six or seven chamber groups arranged around them and lights emphasizing the size of the space.

"It's the footprint of the Bay it's that big but empty, and it's mysterious," Mickelthwate said of the venue."Like, the whole history is there, or the mythology of Winnipeg is down there."

After that performance, the audience can head to the Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art across the street to hear a soundscape created over two different radio stations by Suuns musicianBen Shemie.

On Friday, the festival will feature a junked car, painted by kids from ArtCity, played like a percussion instrument by a group of Winnipeg musicians.

The car performance will be followed by an overnight concert called "12 hour drone," inspired by a similar 24-hour concert series. Starting at 12 a.m. Saturday, a string of performers will play constant sound for 12 hours straight in the Duncan Sportsplex near Fort Douglas Park.

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Participants are invited to bring their sleeping bags and stay the night, or leave and come back the next morning for food, drink and yoga.

"I'm so excited for this one. It's something we never did," Mickelthwate said.

"It will be an absolute journey."

You can purchase tickets for the festival online. A single night costs $25,or $12 for students, and afull festival pass is $89.