Curtain closes on a successful music and speech festival

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on April 1, 2023.

Adjudicator Heidi Wood works to lift the expressions of young singers from the Raymond Elementary School Choir during the Lethbridge and District Music and Speech Arts Festival on Friday at Southminster United Church. Herald photo by Ian Martens

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The Lethbridge and District Music and Speech Arts Festival is wrapping up today with its Stars of the Festival Showcase at 2 p.m. at Southminster, after hosting well over 3,000 participants.

Festival general manager Jaimee Jarvie said this year’s festival exceeded her expectations not only from the level of skills showcased by everyone, but the incredible sense of community felt throughout.

“What stood out for me was seeing the joy in these kids’ eyes because they’re back in front of an audience, and we had audiences for every single class that we did. People were coming out to support them,” said Jarvie.

 She said one particular example of the community spirit she noticed took place at Southminster United Church while bands were performing.

 “So many ensembles would stay for the whole morning or the whole afternoon to support each other and see what the other people in the city are doing, so just having that community aspect back after such a strange time in our lives was just totally thrilling,” said Jarvie.

She said in general they had a great festival and even though it was busy, everything turned out well.

“We had 12 incredible adjudicators, we got amazing feedback from the performers and the parents, the performances were outstanding and we had about 3,600 participants in this festival between all of the choirs, the band and the solo performances, so it was a very busy week but we are incredibly happy with how it went,” said Jarvie.

She said one of the lessons learned from this year’s festival was to be prepared for a big turnout after the massive turnout this year, since organizers were surprised by the number of performers.

“I think the biggest thing for us was we maybe we’re not expecting so many people and so it was a very busy two weeks. So I’m hopeful and I’m expecting even more people next year, and we’ll just keep learning and growing and rolling with the punches as they come,” said Jarvie.

She said organizers are excited to keep growing the festival and continue encouraging young people to be brave and come out to showcase the hard work they put into their artistic endeavours.

Jarvie said the festival was only possible thanks to the help of the board and the countless hours put in by volunteers who had different roles from backstage crew for bands and choirs to assistants to the adjudicators and many roles in between.

“The festival definitely would not have happened without all of these phenomenal people. They gave hours and hours of their time, and we see it and we appreciate it so much,” said Jarvie.

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