Band and Choral Festival committee confident event will recover after back-to-back cancellations

For the second year in a row, the Moose Jaw Band and Choral Festival has been cancelled due to pandemic safety concerns, but the event’s committee is keeping a positive outlook for the future.

The hugely popular music festival typically takes place in mid-May and would have filled downtown Moose Jaw with hundreds of band and choral students this coming week, if provincial regulations had allowed. 

Instead, the committee made the decision to postpone the event for a second time, leaving a two-year gap since the 70th annual Band and Choral Festival was celebrated in 2019.

“It’s sad and unfortunate [but] it was actually a fairly easy decision to make,” said Janie Fries, spokesperson from the festival committee. 

Many school bands and choirs have been unable to practice or perform together over the past year, and Fries said that if the festival were to go forward this year, participation likely would have been very low.

“Band programs and choir programs have basically been either adapted or totally eliminated this year in some schools, so we knew we would not have had the participation numbers we would like to run the festival,” said Fries.

Although the announcement comes with disappointment, Fries said that it isn’t a big surprise to either the committee or the festival’s clinicians and participants.

“I think they would have been more surprised if we actually had a festival,” said Fries. 

But, said Fries, the future is hardly bleak for the popular event. The festival committee is instead planning for a 2022 return, with registration tentatively set to begin in September for a May festival.

Over 100 groups registered and attended the 2019 event, said Fries, and the committee is expecting lots of enthusiasm to get back on the stage with clinicians. 

“I see it as being very successful because the programs have had to halt or slow down extremely, so I think students and directors are going to be very excited about the possibility of getting back into a festival,” said Fries.

She’s also anticipating seeing lower participation for the next few years, due to the extended break in events and the continued caution of band programs.

“I do have a feeling our festival will be smaller than usual [and] we’re going to have a few years of rebuilding to do, but it will happen,” said Fries. “We have a gem of a festival here [and] I think the fact that it’s in Moose Jaw is unique. It would not be the same if it were held in Regina or Saskatoon.”

Festival plans for 2020 are already slated to be a big deal, as Fries said the committee is planning on hosting a huge return event that will begin that rebuilding process and have Moose Jaw filled with music once again.

Fries teased the idea of more partnerships with downtown businesses and lots of suggested activities for participants to try out in their downtime. 

The Moosic in the Park event is also likely to return as a fun noon-hour performance series at the Crescent Park amphitheatre, which debuted in 2019 at the festival with great success.

“We have a big party planned for next year, [with] different things that are going to be more celebratory than in the past,” said Fries. “And I want to say thank you to this city for everything you do in supporting this festival every year.”