Prince Albert Winter Festival providing locals quality entertainment

Ages of the performers ranged from 15 to 17 years old with a wide variety of music.

Each performer was placed with one of three experienced coaches to provide wisdom or help leading up to Sunday’s performance. Auditions began in December and they’ve been working with their coaches since then.

Coach Forrest Eaglespeaker told paNOW it was important to build a relationship with the teenagers at the beginning.

“Building that initial foundation and sort of getting to know each other a little bit and finding out the type of artist that are sitting inside of them already that are just waiting to be unleashed,” Eaglespeaker said. “Building up their confidence as much as possible…like all of these kids are already so talented so it’s just about making them more comfortable within themselves as artists and helping them find the best path for themselves.”

The Adventure Youth Talent Show had six performers throughout the night at the E.A. Rawlinson Centre. (Ian Gustafson/paNOW Staff)

He added he was proud of the progress all these artists made leading up to Sunday’s show.

Beerd Derby Fuzz Check

Also Sunday night was the P.A. Winter Festival Beerd Derby at the Rock and Iron Sports Bar.

Each contestant has had a fuzz check every three weeks since October to keep track of their progress.

Sunday night was the finale where a couple of professional hair judges checked each participant competing in seven different categories including amateur mustache, amateur full brush and amateur miscellaneous. Amateur means when they signed up they had no facial hair. They also have the professional mustache, professional full brush and professional miscellaneous for those contestants who started with a full beard.

The seventh category is a new addition to the derby – the hairy leg competition for females. It will be launched as an actual category next year, but this year was just for fun.

“I took on with the challenge of the idea that I wanted to bring back the pizzazz or the lustre that it once had,” Erickson said. “It used to be one of the major attractions to the Prince Albert Winter Festival and it kind of lost the lackluster over a 25 or 30 year period and I just decided it didn’t need to be that way now that we have a local brewery again.”

Ashley Brandson was one of the judges during the Prince Albert Winter Festival Beerd Derby. (Ian Gustafson/paNOW Staff)

Erickson said they had just under 50 contestants competing this year and are optimistic they’ll break 100 next year.

Darryl Frenette, who has been a barber for 29 years, said when judging he was looking for something that was well groomed, neat, and clean.

“You know it’s all about participation, just trying to get more people out and it’s more about fellowship and having fun and having a nice night out,” Frenette said. “It’s excellent. I’m so thankful that Doug asked me. It’s quite an honour to come out here and judge this.”

Ashley Brandson who was the second judge and happens to be a full-time hairdresser, said she was looking at how the participants maintained their facial hair and the symmetry.

“This is my first year so I’m just really excited to just see what everyone’s done,” she said.

Group photo of all the participants in the Prince Albert Winter Festival Beerd Derby. (Ian Gustafson/paNOW Staff)

Winner of the professional full brush category, Cory Meredith, said his beard is two and a half years in the making.

“There’s a lot of maintenance that needs to be done to a beard – like you got your conditioners, shampoos, lotions and oils,” Meredith said.

He said he brushes his beard every day.

“I think I brush my beard two – three times a day just to keep the fullness,” he explained.

—

Ian.gustafson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @iangustafson12

by Ian Gustafson

Prince Albert Winter Festival providing locals quality entertainment

What's Trending