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By Angela Brown

COVID-19 protocols

Battlefords Kiwanis Music Festival to be livestreamed

Mar 2, 2021 | 6:16 PM

The Battlefords Kiwanis Music Festival organizers are thrilled the event will be able to return to the stage this year, while following COVID-19 restrictions.

The festival will run from April 19 to 24 after the event was cancelled last year due to the province’s pandemic precautions in place.

President Dianne Gryba said participants will take part at North Battleford’s main performing arts venue.

“We have rented the Dekker Centre so we are very excited about that, for the children to get a chance to be on the professional stage with the concert grand piano,” she said.

While no live audience will be permitted at the venue, families can still view the festival at home through an online link instead.

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“We’re going to livestream the event,” Gryba said. “We’re getting very modern. Parents, grandparents and aunties from the Maritimes, and people from all over the place can just click and watch.”

The event has received more than 200 festival entries this time around.

Participants will follow strict protocols. Masks will be required for performers, with the exception of vocalists and those playing woodwind-type instruments. Organizers plan to set up plexiglass barriers in front of performers for added safety. Social distancing will also implemented.

Gryba said the necessary adjudicators, teachers, volunteers and venue staff will be in attendance while the performers are on stage, with no more than 30 people permitted in the facility at a time.

Any groups will need to submit their performances digitally, rather than participating live.

Following the festival, organizers plan to release a pre-recorded video Gala Performance at a later date.

Gryba is relieved the festival will be able to go on this year after being cancelled in 2020.

“As a music teacher, I see my students are quite excited about the chance to prepare [a piece] to perform, and have goals,” she said. “It’s been a year where it is sometimes hard to see the goals. So, this is really important for them.”

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @OCoureurDesBois