Sun broke over downtown Wednesday as an estimated 1,800 dancers filed into Centennial Hall for the Grand Entrance, opening four days of Celebration.

The biennial festival, organized by Sealaska Heritage Institute, is the largest gathering of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people and one of the largest events in the state. Thirty-four dance groups are taking part this year, including first-time participants from Hawaii and New Zealand, alongside groups from across Alaska and the Great Plains. This year’s theme is “Enduring Strength.”

Sealaska Heritage’s board named Lepquinm Gumilgit Gagoadim Tsimshian Dancers, a multigenerational group from Anchorage formed in 2005, as the lead dance group. The role is demanding: the lead group drums and sings for as long as three hours during each of the Grand Entrance and Grand Exit processions, when every participating group dances across the stage.

Events run through Saturday at Centennial Hall, Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall, the Walter Soboleff Building, the Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus and plaza, the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council, and the Alaska State Library, Archives and Museum. Alongside the dance performances are a juried art show and competition, a juried youth art exhibit, a toddler regalia review, a Native artist market, Native food contests and a parade through downtown. KTOO is broadcasting locally and streaming events worldwide.

Celebration began in 1982, when Sealaska Heritage was a new organization and elders worried that young people were not learning the old songs and dances after decades of cultural suppression. About 200 people came to the first one. It has since been credited with driving a regional revival, sending people back to learn ancestral songs and to make regalia for the next gathering.

The festival is also a significant economic event for Juneau, with an earlier study putting its impact at $2 million.

Four-day passes are sold in person at the Sealaska Heritage Store. All events are open to the public.