The milestone 60th edition of the Carnduff and District Music and Arts Festival celebrated the talents of hundreds of people in the southeast region.
A total of 313 entrants were received for the festival, and another 224 were in the art contest. Those entrants came from the southeast corner of the province, in addition to the host communities of Carnduff and Oxbow.
The festival kicked off with a diamond jubilee performance in Carnduff on March 2. Pamela Dmytriw, who was the president of this year’s festival, said they had 33 performers, with all of their disciplines represented, and even a dancer who entertained the crowd.
“The jubilee was a great celebration, and we forgoed our usual strawberry shortcake, and we had a cake with the 60-year emblem this year,” said Dmytriw.
It was nice to have everything fall into the place this year, she said. The weather didn’t cause too many problems, and the adjudicators worked well with the students.
The main performance portion of the festival opened on March 10 at the Carnduff branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, with the strings and guitar discipline, which also included violin and fiddle.
The piano portion ran from March 11 to 14 at the Carnduff legion.
“Piano makes up approximately 50 per cent of our entrants, so that’s why it’s a lot longer,” said Dmytriw.
While the piano discipline was going on, the band and instrumental discipline was taking place in Oxbow at the Prairie Horizon School on March 13.
“We did our morning with all instrumentals and soloists, and the afternoon was the four bands in the area,” said Dmytriw.
The vocal and speech arts discipline began on March 14 at the legion, and continued throughout the following day. Dmytriw noted they needed to have their adjudicator come in early because they had so many entrants in the discipline.
A festival highlights and awards program, also at the legion, took place on March 18. The two-hour program saw 25 performances and 51 awards handed out.
“As always, the calibre of the music that we have is phenomenal,” said Dmytriw. “I had the privilege of watching everyone from the three and four-year-olds, right through to our senior students, and every person who participated in the festival this year should be proud of their accomplishments.
“We were so pleased to be able to have the opportunity to listen to them, because they presented themselves all very well.”
Leah MacFarlane of Carnduff was recommended to attend the provincial music festival in Moose Jaw from May 30-June 2 for the talent she displayed on the piano. There will be an added incentive at provincials this year, because the national music festival will be held in Saskatoon in the summer.
As for the arts festival, students had to create a piece of art that reflected this year’s theme of 60 Years of Musical Selection. They had to have all of the components of art that make for a good piece.
“The art is always beautiful, so what we do is we actually take all of the artists’ entries, and we use them as part of the décor for the festival. We decorate the legion with all of the pieces that are turned in,” said Dmytriw.
Cash prizes are handed out for the art. Three students from each six categories, based on grade, will receive monetary prizes for the strength of their entries. Also, all of the entries are entered into a draw for a $50 art package, which includes new art supplies to work with.
All of the artwork selections will be posted on the festival’s Facebook page.
Outside of the jubilee to open the festival, there wasn’t a lot of special events during the festival. But during the festival program, Saskatchewan Music Festival Association representative Valentina May shared historical information in her message to the audience.
She mentioned that in the first year of festival in Carnduff, the adjudicator saw 96 performances. At that time, the festival was only one day long, with performances from 9 a.m. to midnight.
Dmytriw applauded people for their commitment to the festival.
“We find that at this time of year, with all of the other things that are finalizing, with hockey and dance and such, it’s sometimes harder to demand extra of people’s time, and we are so grateful that people take the time out of their lives to do the festival, because we know how crazy it is, especially in smaller communities where lots of kids are involved in a lot of extra things.”
The music festival relies heavily on volunteers to make sure the event happens. She hopes people will continue to get behind the festival. They are also looking for a couple of board members.
“We had so many people who were willing to volunteer … and I appreciate everyone who did step up, because it made it a lot easier.”
