K'atlo'deeche First Nation is the place to be this weekend as the 43rd edition of K'amba Carnival kicks off on Thursday afternoon.

This year features another mix of dancing, singing, activities for both young and kind of young and dog races with six-dog and 10-dog events scheduled to take place.

Diane Tourangeau has been looking after the organizing for this year's festival and said preparations for this year started in early February.

"We had meetings to see what we were going to do," she said. "The one thing we were worried about was the raffle tickets because we needed to get the licence to sell them."

Without that, there could be no ticket sales and no crowning of the carnival royalty, but Tourangeau said the licence came in and all was good. 

The opening day's schedule will see the youth talent show take place at the Chief Lamalice Complex but before any of that happens, there's the little issue of crowning this year's Queen, Prince and Princess. That's determined by whoever sells the most raffle tickets in each category.

Tourangeau said there are two contestants for queen, three in the running for prince and one princess.

Friday's events are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. with outdoor events for youth at the Chief Sunrise Education Centre and a $7,000 bingo at the Chief Lamalice Complex at 7 p.m. A drum dance will follow the bingo.

The dog races get underway on Saturday with the 10-dog race leaving first behind Super A Foods at 11 a.m., followed by the start of the six-dog race. The adult outdoor games will start up at the Chief Lamalice Complex at 1 p.m. with the adult talent show in the evening at 7 p.m.

After the talent show, there will be a country and western-themed dance with North Country Rock playing as the live band, said Tourangeau.

Sunday's schedule will see the dog races finish up and a poker derby on the snowmobiles beginning at 2 p.m. Adult outdoor games will also continue at 1 p.m.

There won't be any hand games this year, said Tourangeau, as there wasn't enough funding available to make that happen.

"We usually get a good turnout every year and we're hoping for another good one this year," said Tourangeau. "We had a slow start but we've been working hard and we're looking forward to seeing everyone again."