The Stars of the Festival was held virtually on Wednesday evening, and the scholarship recipients were announced by emcees Colleen Weimer and Bob King, and the performances were dedicated to the memory of the late June Barber, a a former musician and piano teacher, and the late Isabelle Butters, who was a patron of the arts and a former mayor of Weyburn. Music Festival president Heather Sidloski said in her introduction to the Stars performance, “Although public performances have been limited this year, students have continued their music journey by taking virtual music lessons, practicing at home, and recording performances to share with others.”
The only live portion of the festival was piano, which began on Monday and will run through to Wednesday, March 10, all at the T.C. Douglas Centre, and the few entries for band-instrumental will be held on Wednesday evening. The piano adjudicator is Janis Smith. “Technically the piano is not a live festival. Due to COVID regulations, we cannot have an audience,” said Music Festival president Heather Sidloski, explaining how this portion of the festival will run. “Any parents who are coming to the festival will be given ‘volunteer duties’ to help produce our ‘virtual festival’. They will video their child’s performance and then if they choose will post it on their Facebook page and/or the Music Festival Facebook page. We do have a live adjudicator and everything else for piano will run as normal,” she explained.