It seems like no time at all since the winners of the last Creston’s Best Singer contest were announced, but the contest is ready to run again — and this time, the audience gets a say in who advances to the finals.
“I really want to give the people a voice,” said organizer Vern Gorham. “If I had the technology, there would always be audience voting.”
Audience voting will be low-tech — pen and paper — this time around, when 30 singers take the stage at Prince Charles Theatre on Feb. 23. Following the Feb. 23 show, the votes will be tallied and the top 20 winners kept a secret until announced in the March issue of I Love Creston magazine.
Those 20 will compete on March 11 in the Overwaitea Foods Creston’s Best Singer Contest, which will be adjudicated by out-of-town judges. The winner will walk away with $150, while $75 and $50 will be handed to, respectively, the second and third place winners.
Gorham is asking all who attend next week’s event to help out the Creston Valley Gleaners Society by donating one non-perishable food item.
“With 300-some-odd people coming, if they each bring one, it should really do a lot of good,” he said.
But the main theme of the evening is fun.
“I just hope to recapture the enthusiasm of the last one,” said Gorham. “In the end, I want everybody to walk away feeling like it was time well spent.”
The show starts at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available at Black Bear Books.