Crowds of Alaska Natives and locals flocked to the campus last weekend to celebrate the Festival of Native Arts.

The festival, now in its 34th year, has become an annual tradition in the Fairbanks community.

Local Grace Houle has been going to the festival for years. She comes for the performances and to check out the native crafts sold in the Regents' Great Hall. This year she brought her 2-year-old son Andrew.

"I'm from Fairbanks and I remember coming when I was a little girl and dancing on the stage during an invitational," Houle said. "I think [Andrew] really enjoys the performances because he sat still for like fifteen minutes."

About 30 different groups performed, mostly in the Davis Concert Hall. There were traditional tribal storytellers, singers and dancers from the Yupik, Tlingit, Aleut, Inupiat, Athabaskan, Haida and Tsimshian.

The festivities commenced with a color guard and an invocation speech by Vice Chancellor Bernice Joseph. Then the performers began their sets. Each one lasted 10 to 40 minutes. The performances each lead into the next, making the stage continuously occupied from 6 p.m. to 12 a.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

A crowd of more than 200 gathered to watch friends, family members and strangers give performances. The crowd clapped and cheered noisily.

The consensus among the performers was that, unless they had not previously performed, being on stage in front of so many people wasn't troubling.

"The first time performing was pretty nerve wracking," said Kurt Joseph Kokrine II, 17.

"Were kind of used to it by now," said Alicia Hill, originally from Minto. "We've been coming here since we were young but we've only been performing the last couple of years."

The FNA/JOM Potlach dancers, including Kokrine and Hill, all seemed to agree that dancing is a cultural experience that they treasure.

"We like to sing, dance and drum. We like it because it's what we do," added another dancer.

"I dance to show my pride," said Caitlyn Dayton.

Many of the FNA/JOM performers chose to end their sets with an "invitational," during which they invite the audience to join them on stage and participate in the singing and dancing. Long-time festival goers like Houle were left with lasting impressions about what it is like to be up on stage sharing in the cultural experience.

Accompanying the festival was a craft fair where vendors selling native artwork were peddling their wares. There were booths selling clothing, CDs, trinkets and jewelry.

Some vendors, such as handcrafter Sara Tweet, were experiencing the Festival of Native Arts for the first time. Others, like jewelry maker Betty Inglis, had purchased table space several years in a row. Tweet makes dancing dolls from leather and ivory as well as seal skin slippers. Her goods sold well and she was impressed by the festival. She plans to return next year.

"I got to see two groups perform and they were beautiful," Tweet said.

The festival is also an excuse for the Alaska Native community and the university's academia to convene and learn from each other.

To accompany the festival, the Museum of the North showed Len Kamerling's film "The Drums of Winter." Lecturers also spoke about the historical and cultural elements of native life.