The Oilsands Rotary Music Festival first began in 1976. At that time it was sponsored by the Fort McMurray Society of the Friends of Music. It was a 2 day festival with just over 200 entries in Choral, Vocal (including Musical Theatre), and Speech Arts (including Choral Speech). There were three adjudicators: Mrs. Anne Marie Stacey, Mrs. Roberta Stephen, and Mr. Paul Bourret. The three venues were: Clearwater Elementary School, St. John the Baptist Church, and All Saints Anglican Church. Following the festival, the committee applied to the Alberta Music Festival Association for membership. The requirements were to have had a successful classical festival which meant staying within the budget. Our application was presented and approved at the Alberta Music Festival Association annual meeting in Calgary in conjunction with the Alberta Provincial Finals. Joining the AMFA meant that our adjudicators could recommend our participants to advance to the Provincial Finals and even the National Festival.

Over the years the festival continued to grow in numbers and in quality as more private teachers took up residence and the school districts expanded their music programs to include bands. The Fort McMurray Society of the Friends of Music was a small organization and the festival was not their only project. The Fort McMurray Oilsands Rotary Club was formed in order to assist with fundraising and volunteering for the music festival and the festival became known as the Oilsands Rotary Music Festival. This partnership has continued to the present. More disciplines were added as the city grew and the festival expanded to include piano, strings, bands, instrumental, and music composition. The need for more performing venues became apparent and some of the schools had theatres that could be used for festival events. Keyano Main Theatre, opened in 1980, was thought to be a venue in which the whole festival could take place. That lasted exactly one year as entries continued to expand so we continued using Keyano and churches. Then Keyano expanded its music programs and the Recital Theatre and Arts Centre was built. This was an amazing facility: studios for private lessons, rehearsal halls for Community Choir and Community Bands. Festival entries grew to 1,500. At the turn of the century, there was a drop in population as people began to retire and festival participants grew up and moved away so festival entries also reduced to a low of 750. By 2016 the festival was making a strong comeback, with many soloists and groups being recommended to the Provincial Festival. Then came the Wildfire and everyone was evacuated on May 3rd, with most people heading to Edmonton and area. The internet saved the day for our Provincial Solo entries. We were able to get our entries in and contact our participants by email. Then, other AMFA festivals began contacting us offering original music for the adjudicators, practice venues in Edmonton, and costumes for Musical Theatre participants. As people returned home they continued with their music studies and the festival began to grow in numbers.

Then in March of 2020 COVID19 surfaced everywhere. Festival was on hold but began again in 2021 via video entries. Participants made videos of their performances in their back yards, in their teacher’s home studios, and in their own homes. In 2022, we were allowed to have in-person performances with an audience but adjudicators were reluctant to travel because they could get off a plane here and be quarantined for a week, then adjudicate for
a few days, and then be quarantined again upon returning. No one could afford to leave their own studio for that amount of time, so a videographer was hired to record the performances in Keyano Recital Theatre, then sent to the adjudicators, who viewed them, wrote up adjudications and sent them back to us. 2023 and 2024 saw the festival return to a normal format and entries continued to grow in numbers. As well, our entries in the Provincial Festival have grown to over 45 soloists and groups. Looking forward, it would be great if we could meet or exceed 50 in this, our 50th year of Oilsands Rotary Music Festival.

~ Norma Jean Atkinson