Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous Festival

Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous Festival

Near the end of February, after a few months of sub-zero temperatures, Yukoners get a crazed look in their eyes and break out in grins for no apparent reason. It’s time to cut loose and take part in the best-known cure for cabin fever, the annual Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous Festival.

A kind of Mardi Gras in mukluks, "Rendezvous" is an entire week of wintertime silliness and celebration. Downtown Whitehorse assumes a carnival atmosphere as streets are closed for games, concerts and snow carving, and individuals test their skills and stamina in northern contests like chainsaw chucking, axe throwing or flour packing. Even the military joins in the fun, with Canadian and American aircraft putting on the annual Rendezvous Air Show at Whitehorse International Airport.