Celebrating Margie Frost & Inaugural Togiak Bristol Bay Yuraq Festival

Spring 2026 Margie Frost's dream to host a multigenerational Yup'ik dance festival in the Togiak school became a reality. This - Bitanga Produciton, in association with the Alaska State Council on the Arts - video highlights the INAUGURAL TOGIAK BRISTOL BAY YURAQ FESTIVAL and how founder Margie Frost helped promote and facilitate indigenous ceremonies important to her, her family, her community and her region.

Margie and her yuraq singer & drummer husband Aaron Frost, coordinated with - local and regional - tribal affiliates, arts associations, educational institutions and guest artists to host a week-long festival centered around indigenous learning.

Yuraq singer husband Aaron Frost records while Margie admires on

Yup’ik crooner Martin Paul performs with Pamyua for surprise concert at the training

Youth representing six remote towns and villages located within the Bristol Bay region of Southwest Alaska became the student body of this program inspired by their heritage.

Yuraq is an interactive multigenerational dance ceremony that is ancestrally practiced by Yup’ik and Cup’ik families, but was aggressively prohibited through colonial abuse and institutional systems introduced by European settlers.

This festival centers the indigenous traditions of yuraq to promote creative and spiritual expression. Strengthening this practice promotes language retention; it also brightens an awareness of the environmental relationships enjoyed between breathing and non-breathing citizens indigenous to the region.

Ivan Night, Margie Frost, Qacung and Phillip Blanchett

Congradulations and QUYANA to all of the participants and visitors of the first Inaugural Togiak Bristol Bay Yuraq Festival. ###