The wet weather played a bit of havoc with setup for this year’s Manitou Beach Chainsaw Carving Festival, but it didn’t dampen the competitive or creative spirits of the carvers. It also didn’t hamper visitors from attending and bidding on the quick carves.
The carving festival has grown year over year with people travelling further distances and bus tours pulling in for the event. This year, the festival saw its first international carver with Para Havatitye entering for the first time. The carver and his son trekked all the way from Ireland to carve and showcase their talents.
“It is my first time in Canada,” said Havatitye who spoke highly of the hospitality of the community and camaraderie among the carvers. “I saw some of the carvers posting on Facebook, and there was a post saying they were looking for carvers. So I said, ‘Sure, I’ll try this one’.”
Born in Zimbabwe, Havatitye settled in Ireland about 28 years ago to be with family. His intention to enter the priesthood took a turn, and he left his training. His uncle was a stone carver, and he transferred those skills to the more malleable medium of wood.
“I did wood etchings mostly with chisels and a mallet, and with hatchets,” Para explained. “I’ve been carving for 32 years, and with chainsaws for 16. That was the conversion.”
He said he’s been having a great deal of fun, despite an unscheduled break in the proceedings on Friday due to an abundance of lightning at one point in the day.
Carver Kamron Garbe made his return to the festival this year. The Regina native, now living in Armstrong, BC is back for his third Manitou experience.
“The carving things has really taken off,” Garbe says. “It was my first ever event four years ago, and I’ve been all over the world now, but it feels like coming home every time I come back here.”
The carving community is a tight knit one given the equipment and the know how it takes to ascend the ranks. That leads to a feeling of support and a connected spirit among those who gather for competitions or expositions.
“Most of the carvers know each other, and it is like a family.”
Kamron’s imaginative creation this year is a mélange of imagery that includes a heron, a fox, a woman and some wheat sheeves blended together.
“I’m calling her my Prairie Princess.”
With the exception of an impromptu shower from a tarp dump during a quick carver, Garbe says his experience has been smooth sailing at the competition.
The rain was not a deterrent to crowds in the early going, said Fawne Inkster with the organizing committee.
“Beside the rain, we’re seeing a lot of amazing carvings coming together, and we’ve seen a very good crowd. On Thursday, we saw twice as many in attendance compared to Thursday of our last event. On Friday, we had 25 per cent more attendance than last event’s Friday, so the rain and clouds haven’t been stopping the spectators from coming out.”
With one carver having to opt out due to wildfires near his northern home, the nine remaining carvers tucked in under the individual tarp covers and carried on rain or shine. Along with Havatitye and Garbe, the carving compound was filled with a mix of newcomers and veterans. Inkster said that carver Jim Niedermeyer of Manitoba had been present for all of the festivals dating back to 2019.
“We’ve done a lot of posting on social media and it’s great to see how interest has grown even from 2021 and 2023. Looking at the crowd, it’s a lot of out of town people.”
That’s in part to the fact that many of the locals are volunteering through various shifts to help the festival grow and thrive year after year. It’s that spirit of Manitou Beach and Watrous that sees service groups, individuals and businesses come together to make the Manitou Beach Chainsaw Carving Festival the truly unique Saskatchewan gem it’s become.