The Estevan and District Music Festival will feature some great local talent, and more than $10,000 in awards and bursaries for those who will be participating.
The festival will be starting on March 11 at Trinity Lutheran Church with piano performances. Piano will run from March 11-16, followed by vocal and speech arts from March 21-24 and band and strings on March 27 and 28.
The festival is going into its 54th year and between then and now, the entire event has been run by volunteers.
鈥淚t鈥檚 nice of people to give all their time to this cause. It is very difficult to run an operation as big as a music festival and we are glad to have the support we have got over the years,鈥� said Esther Bangsund, the president of the music festival committee.
Bangsund first got into helping out with music festivals a quarter century ago and she is still going strong.
鈥淚 was asked about 25 years ago when I lived in Weyburn to help out with my kids, who just got started with music and I was involved while they were going through the festival. When I moved to Estevan in 2001, I joined and helped then, and ever since I have been doing a lot for the music festival and it has been a great experience,鈥� said Bangsund. 鈥淣ow that all my kids are grown up I still feel that this event is important.鈥�
The festival is going to be unique this year because there is a performer who will be looking to qualify for the national stage.
鈥淲e do have a performer that has entered into national classes and that does not happen every often and we are really looking forward to having that person with us,鈥� said Bangsund.
鈥淪he is McKenzie Warriner and she is a vocalist. She hopes to quality from our festival to go to the national competition so that is exciting, and she will be performing on Sat. March 24, and I personally hope I will have time to her on stage,鈥� she added.
The adjudicators at the festival will be Audrey Watson for piano classes, Marcia McLean for the vocals, Janie Fries for woodwinds and Greg McLean for brass instruments.
Bangsund believes the festival is important to the community and she is looking forward to bright and very successful 2018.
鈥淭he value I think the festival brings the community is it gives students and groups an opportunity to share their musical talents, achieve some goals, and their work is also judged so they have an opportunity to improve,鈥� said Bangsund.
鈥淚t means different things to different people. Some look at it as a chance to get up and perform and have a good time, and others are looking, for example, to advance their career,鈥� she added.
The festival will have separate highlights and awards programs for the piano, instrumental and vocal categories.
鈥淭he judges will choose who wins the awards and then we will have an evening where we have some of the performers who will play or sing, and we are just in the process now of picking what days those award nights are going to be on,鈥� said Bangsund.
