Local students took part in the Prairie Sunset Music Festival throughout the week. Hosted this year in Luseland; surrounding communities came together to showcase their talents.

With a total of 173 entries, students from Macklin, Luseland, Kerrobert, Dodseland, Major, and Denzil shared their musical and speech art skills.

Featured in the music festival was piano, string, speech art, vocal, choral, musical theatre, guitar, and band. Students competed on Tuesday and Wednesday, working with amazing adjudicators and making many new friends. But, on Thursday night only twenty seven performances were shared again at the Festival of Stars.

Poems were said, instruments were played, and songs were sang. It was a very fun night at the Festival of Stars and thirty two scholarships were handed out to the lucky performers the adjudicators had chose.

Five of those performances were recommended to move on and perform again at the Provincial Finals in Moose Jaw from May 30th to June 2nd. The lucky few included:

Suzannah Bakanek who was recommended in the junior strings scholar class.

Steyn Hoogstad who was recommended in the intermediate speech arts scholar class.

The Dolce Divas, a group of six women, who were recommended in the open choral scholar class.

Lastly, Senaye Vokins who was recommended in two categories. First being the junior voice scholar class, and second was the junior musical theatre scholar class.

 

The Festival of Stars Participants

Krista Brost, a 26 year old band teacher at Luseland school and President of the Prairie Sunset Music Festival, shared what a great experience Music Festival is.

Brost said, “Music Festival is a great chance for the students to showcase the hard work they have put in. It gives them a chance to work with very knowledgeable people in music. It introduces them to new kids who share a love for music too. And overall, it’s just fun!”

She also shared her congratulations to all the competitors saying, “It is because of your passion and excitement for music and the speech arts, that we once again have enough entries to hold a local festival that is a proud member of the Saskatchewan Music Festival Association, and the Federation of Canadian Music Festivals.”

This was Brost’s first year as president and all of her hard work paid off as she was mentored by Nancy Pitura, Vice President of the Festival Committee.

Each year the festival rotates between Macklin, Luseland, and Kerrobert. This year entries went up by approximately fifty, which is very exciting to communities as more people are getting involved.

Overall Brost said, “There were lots of laughs at Music Festival, the adjudicators were awesome, every competitor was smiling, the volunteers were fantastic, and many cookies were ate!”

The Saskatchewan Music Festival Association will be holding forty seven district music festivals throughout the province from March to May.