To celebrate its 30th anniversary, the Olds and District Kiwanis Music Festival is putting on a "special concertî on March 13, the night before the festival kicks off.
"It'll be a different concert than we've ever done before,î said Wendy Durieux, a festival coordinator, adding 15 young musicians from Olds and the surrounding area will perform classical songs composed in the 1980s to commemorate the decade in which the festival launched.
The audience will then vote on the best performance at the end of the show.
In the past, Durieux said, the festival has featured mainly piano-based performances, but organizers wanted to mix the program up this year.
"This one, we have a little bit of piano, we have a little bit of musical theatre, we have a little bit of violin. It's just different genres in this class.î
The concert is free to attend and takes place at 7 p.m. at the TransCanada Theatre.
The festival, which runs from March 14 to 28, began when Olds music teachers came together with the aim of holding a major music-based event in town.
They approached the local Kiwanis Club in 1983 with a request to sponsor the festival and the first event was held in 1984.
The club has stayed on as a major sponsor throughout the past three decades, Durieux said, although the festival has an independent board and administration to run the event.
Over its three decades, more than 50,000 performers have taken to the stage at the festival giving performances centred on speech, musical theatre, vocals, piano, violin and more, she added.
"This one, we have a little bit of piano, we have a little bit of musical theatre, we have a little bit of violin. It's just different genres in this class."Wendy Durieux, Olds and District Kiwanis Music Festival
