The 100 Mile Festival of the Arts marks its 35th anniversary this April 26 to May 6 with the celebration and adjudication of local students of speech and dramatic arts, vocals, piano, instrumental and band.
Daily performances take place at Martin Exeter Hall, with some at the Evangelical Free Church and band adjudication will be done at the participating schools.
Eleanor Nicoll, who has been involved with the Festival since 1983, heads up the festival committee as president this year. She anticipates it will be a very positive event for both students and their instructors.
"Whatever discipline students are working in, there is a boost to self-esteem when they succeed or get positive comments from an adjudicator. For teachers, their students get a wider opinion of their progress."
The festival content has changed over the course of 35 years. Originally, it was a dance festival and, eventually, as interest grew in other areas of the arts, piano, voice, instrumental, band and speech arts were added.
Currently, speech arts leads in popularity, with instrumental on the rise.
The festival will take shape with daily performances by students who will be adjudicated by professionals in the different disciplines.
From April 26 to 30, speech and dramatic arts will be the focus at Martin Exeter Hall, with adjudicator Andrea Johnston who is a Vancouver- based professional actor, director and instructor.
Vocal adjudication takes place April 27-28 at the Evangelical Free Church with adjudicator Marta Zeegers from Kimberley. She is the Kimberley Community Choir director and a vocal teacher.
Instrumental and band adjudicator Jim Tempest is from the Lower Mainland and is a musician, educator and the director of music for the Delta Concert Band in Ladner.
May 1 is when instrumental adjudication takes place at Martin Exeter Hall. Band adjudication will be done at the participating schools.
Naomi Cloutier from Kamloops will be adjudicating piano from May 3-5 at Martin Exeter Hall. She has been a music educator for more than 25 years and is also a pianist, adjudicator and accompanist.
Admission to all of the festival events will be by cash donation.
The Showcase Evening on May 6 at Martin Exeter Hall will feature some of the top performances from the various festival classes. There are no advance ticket sales for this event, and admission will be by cash donation at the door. The concert gets underway at 7 p.m.
