Festival of the Arts thrives in Port
It’s a chance to see the best of the best of Port Colborne’s budding musical talent and to show support to the organization that has long nurtured it.
On Wednesday, May 23, the community is invited to Vale Health and Wellness Centre for an evening highlighting performances by dance students, as well as elementary and secondary bands and choirs taking part in this year’s Port Colborne Festival of the Arts. The evening gets underway at 7 p.m.
The showcase features scholarship winners of this year’s festival, which runs over 11 days at various locations across the city.
The festival also features performers in vocal, choral, piano and other solo instruments. Each of the participants performs in front of an adjudicator over the course of the festival. A showcase of those performances takes place 7 p.m. on May 26 at the Portal Village Bible Chapel, at 300 Elgin St.
For both showcases, admission is a pay-what-you-can donation to help defer costs.
The festival began in 1968 and was run by the school boards. However, the organizers ran out of energy and funding, and the festival was shelved.
A few years later, Port Colborne Operatic Society, seeing a need to develop the next generation of musicians and musical performers, worked to bring the festival back.
Linda Caldwell, program secretary and treasurer, said the first meetings were held in her living room and resulted in a small festival featuring piano and vocal performances. The next year, additional categories were added.
“Very gradually, it kept building and building,” she said, adding performers come from not only Port Colborne, but from
Welland, St. Catharines, Niagara Falls, Fort Erie and as far as Burlington.
Caldwell said an important part of the festival’s sustainability is its broad range of support. It doesn’t rely on a single sponsor and instead has buy-in from a number of businesses, organizations and individuals.
“Ours is a community festival,” she said. “It’s kind of nice. We don’t have to rely on one organization — we have community support.”
Caldwell said the May 23 showcase represents the festival trying something new, and organizers are unsure if they’ll be able to get all the students out to the arena for the midweek event. People interested in attending are advised to check the festival website at www.pcfa.ca or its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pcfestivalofthearts.