Day One results from this year’s virtual Kiwanis Music Festival

Guitar students performed virtually for judges

070421_guitar-kid-pexels-cottonbro-4708864

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

Forced to cancel the 2020 festival due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kiwanis Music Festival of Sudbury’s virtual edition got underway last week.

The festival runs from March 29-31 and April 6-9.

“Instead of performing live in front of an audience and guest adjudicator, when the participants register for the festival, they will be required to upload a video of their performance using YouTube,” Kiwanis told Sudbury.com back in December.

“All of the participants in a given class will gather together via a Zoom meeting scheduled during the festival dates, where they will watch all the participants’ videos together and receive a live adjudication.”

The festival also has a new festival co-ordinator after the retirement of Heather Parker, who ran the event for 15 years. Katherine Smith has taken over as festival co-ordinator, although Parker remains on the event’s planning committee as festival treasurer.

Smith told Sudbury.com the virtual version of the festival is a little weird, but the young musicians have been patient and are performing well. She also said the technology has been cooperating for the most part.