Kuujjuaq | Attractions

Attractions

Aqpik Jam Festival 2001 Summers are busy for the outfitters around this vast unspoiled region. Caribou and fish in the rivers are abundant around this time. Hunting and fishing are not the only attractions that draw tourists to Kuujjuaq. The annual Aqpik Jam Festival which is usually held in mid-August attracts many tourists from as far away as Greenland. This music festival which was named after the berry that is plentiful in this region, the cloudberry, promotes native artists, although it has invited groups such as Glass Tiger and Honeymoon Suite in the past. The music performed can range from traditional throat singing and drum dancing to heavy metal to country and gospel.

Recently, a program was developed by the Local Landholding Corporation to harvest Arctic Char. They built a hatchery to reproduce Arctic Char hatchlings and release them into the nearby Stewart Lake which then leads them into the Ungava Bay through networks of streams and other lakes.

Spring Time Camp Site Each Spring there is a competition that takes place for the biggest, heaviest fish. A person has to catch the fish by jigging through ice usually on a lake. The biggest fish caught most of the time is a Lake Trout and they can range from 30 to 40 pounds. Not only is there fishing, there are activities that take place to celebrate the spring season. The activities usually take place around Easter. The highlight of these activities is the snowmobile races.

Christmas Candy Drop Camping, hunting and fishing continues through fall and well into the winter. However, winter is the season that all the villagers look forward to the most especially in the season of giving... Christmas.The Candy Drop. This event is particular only to Kuujjuaq. It was a tradition that was started in the 1970's by Johnny May, a well known local pilot. Each Christmas Day, at around noon, the villagers gather around the area where the candy will be dropped from a plane that flies over the crowd. Big items such as clothes, fur and other luxury items are dropped into the crowd where people will try to be the first to catch them.

Musk oxen were farmed in a fenced in area in Old Fort Chimo in 1967 then released around 1980 into the wild. These herds can be found spread out in the Ungava Bay region. You can take a snowmobile tour with an experienced guide to take you 30 miles out of Kuujjuaq to find them.

In 2000, the municipality of Kuujjuaq invested in building a brand new convention center where their offices are located. The Katittavik Town Hall has an amphitheater where new movies are regularly scheduled for viewing each evening. During the day the theatre seats can be retracted to make room for conferences, conventions, seminars or gatherings.

Katittavik Town Hall

Please look through our directory to contact one of our local outfitters and make arrangements to visit Kuujjuaq or contact our office for more information.