Festival a ‘real eye opener’

Despite a few unexpected challenges the organizers of this year’s Rainy River District Festival of the Performing Arts faced, the overall event couldn’t have been more successful, said event president John Jankiewicz.
“We had a few tests at the beginning,” Jankiewicz said yesterday. “We had to postpone a few things and then reschedule them. It required some quick rearranging, but we managed just fine.”
With so many wonderful performances, Jankiewicz was unable to pick just one act that stood out, though he remarked that the increase of dance in this year’s festival was something he enjoyed seeing.
“The dance was a real eye opener,” noted Jankiewicz. “Dance was certainly one of the main focuses of the festival and all the performers did such a great job. It was funny to see the difference between the crowds that were watching the other events, and then the people who turned out to watch the dance. The dance crowds were much more vocal and a lot less sedate. It was really very interesting to see.”
In addition to the performances, Jankiewicz was also happy to see local businesses stepping up to offer their support for the performing arts in the community.
“We really appreciated the new awards that had been sponsored by area businesses,” Jankiewicz commented. “The Dallman Award for piano and the Gene Boileau award for drama were two of the newest awards to be handed out at this year’s festival.”
This year’s Rose Bowl winners were Cara Coran for vocal, Lindsay Hamilton for drama, Lindsey Hallikas for instrumental and Claire Whatley for piano.
During Sunday’s highlights concert at the Townshend Theatre, Jankiewicz called the names of the children from the area who had won the festival colouring contest.
“We had about 226 entries from children all around the district,” Jankiewicz noted. “The pictures were judged by professional artists from the Fine Line Art Gallery. All of the entries were really well done and everyone should be pleased with the work they did.”
The winners of this year’s festival colouring contest were: grade one students Hayley Nault from Robert Moore School and Andre (no last name given) from Donald Young School; grade three students Brandy Strachan from Donald Young School and Chris Legg from St. Michael’s School; and grade four students Natalie Sliworsky from Donald Young School and Haven Labbe from J.W. Walker School.
“The pictures of the winners are going to be displayed at the Emo and Fort Frances Public Libraries,” Jankiewicz said. “They will be there for two weeks and then I will be giving them back to the schools.”
With the success of this year’s festival, the organizers are already looking toward the future and next year’s festival.
“We are planning on having a post-concert meeting on the 14th of May,” stated Jankiewicz. “We are going to discuss the festival and we will be considering nominations for next year. We always need new volunteers and people are certainly welcome to stop in.”
For more information on volunteering contact Jankiewicz at 274-5494 or Mary Hickling at 274-7747 or 274-7024.