On March 22, the Inuvik Curling Centre was full of young curlers who could someday represent the territory on the national stage.
It was all part of the 5th annual Rock Star Festival, a bonspiel for players aged five to eight, organized with the intention of drumming up interest in the sport.
"This is not necessarily an instructive type of an event," said Nick Saturnino, one of the organizers of the tournament. "It's more for the kids to go out there and have fun and push some rocks down the ice. Hopefully, the eight year olds will want to join junior curling and get a little bit more instruction next year...
"If they get really interested, some of the teams will then move on to be competitive juniors and attend either the Arctic Winter Games or the Canada Winter Games, or even go to under-18 or under-20 nationals. We just had two teams SA国际影视传媒� a boys team and a girls team SA国际影视传媒� go to Saskatoon for the under-18 nationals. Last year, the same two teams went to the Arctic Winter Games. They've actually gone to the last two Arctic Winter Games, in 2023 and 2024. So there's a potential for [these] young players to move through the system."
Saturtino said this year's event "went smoothly," though attendance was down slightly from the previous four iterations.
"Our numbers were a little down this year," he said. "We had about 30 kids register, and had 24 actually participate, which is slightly down."
However, on an annual basis, the numbers have surged as high as 75, although 35 is more typical, according to Saturnino.
The kids who participated in this year's bonspiel were divided into teams by age, and battled it out over the series of several games. In the end, the tournament championship SA国际影视传媒� and the towering two-metre trophy that goes along with it SA国际影视传媒� went to a team of six year olds.
"The seven year olds and eight year olds have never won this event," said Saturtino. "It's always been the age five or age six for some reason. We've had five events now, and it's always been five or six year olds that have won the event.
"I have a feeling it's because the five year olds and six year olds aren't quite as strong as the seven and eights, and the seven and eights can send the rock a little faster," he said. "They throw through the house."
While only one team was able to lay hands on the event's trophy, the organizer is confident they all had a good time. The pizza and cupcakes may have helped.
"In the pictures, you can see a lot of smiles," he said. "It looked like everyone had fun."
