It’s that time of year again when talented singers from the Rainy River District and beyond show off their stuff under the big tent at Quest for the Best.
Scheduled to run this Friday, July 19, 2024 as part of the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship, the annual concert invites local (and not-so-local) singers to the FFCBC stage to perform for hundreds of enthusiastic listeners and battle their way to the top. The event is put on each year by the Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce with help from generous sponsors, and Chamber CEO Heather Johnson said this year’s show is gearing up to be as good as it has ever been, but hopefully a bit easier for those looking to get into the event.
“We still have two sets, we still have the same prizes,” Johnson said.
“All of our sponsors have come back on again this year, so that’s really good. I think it’s going to be a great night, I think we’re really looking forward to this year to see if what we’re doing to improve the entry into the show is going to work out.”
As part of their efforts to both streamline the process of getting into the night’s event under the tent, as well as some of the voting that happens during the show, Johnson said they have changed how banding will happen for the event. This year, those age of majority attendees who want to purchase alcohol during the night will receive a wristband, while everyone else will not. Volunteers only having one wristband to deal with for the night will hopefully cut down on the time it takes to get people through the door, which Johnson said was a bit of a bottleneck last year.
“We’re also going to go out ahead of time in the lineup and band people before they enter,” Johnson said.
“So then they just have to pay their cash and sit down, so it stops that bottleneck at the door. Then we’re going to do, on the performance side, Jessica Ogden of the Window and Door Store, who is our main sponsor, she has developed a QR code for the voting process. So after [each] set, the QR code will be on all of the tables and posted throughout the big tent, and then people can just scan it with their phones and vote that way.”
The voting period for each set will open for about 15 minutes once announced, allowing audience members plenty of time to cast their votes for People’s Choice awards. The move is also aimed at helping keep the show moving along, as the digital votes will no longer require volunteers to roam the crowd with ballot boxes, nor manually count the ballots by hand. The name of the game is keeping the length of the evening under control and making sure everyone can enjoy the talented lineup of performers.
Speaking of the performers, Johnson said that while signups have been a bit slower this year, possibly owing to the duelling time slots of competing events in Rainy River and Thunder Bay, nevertheless there were still 18 performers signed up a week ahead of showtime, with accompanying band The Faculty agreeing to keep registration open until Monday, Johnson said.
VIP tickets for the show, which get ticket holders a space at a table closer to the action for $30, are available for purchase now from the Chamber office or at Causeway Insurance. General admission tickets cost $20 and can be purchased from the same locations, or at te big tent on the evening of Friday, July 19 beginning at 4:00 p.m.
