The 57 annual festival of performing arts came to a close last Thursday with one last night of performances.
Thursday night’s gala featured some of the best performances from the week, including poetry reading, musical performances and singing.
Lois Koop, president and emcee for the evening said that the reason for the success of the festival is purely the passion with which the community has for the performing arts.
“There’s a great deal of passion for music and the performing arts,”Koop said, “it’s the community of volunteers and the hard work they put in that makes this so successful.”
Among the many talented acts of the evening, Trevor Stewart’s performance on the drums of “Five Grooves”, a composition written himself, and Mona Toews rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” particularly captivated the audience.
Koop says the reason for all the talent at the festival is again due to the community.
“The community has created a culture here that supports the arts, and once there is support there’s going to be people willing to put in the practice,” Koop said.