What started out as a onetime contest appears now will become an annual fixture on the Creston music scene. For those who missed the first Creston’s Best Singer Contest in November, you missed an exciting evening of local singing talent in front of a sold-out auditorium vying for the title of “Creston’s Best Singer.”

It was hoped the show would be a success but it was still a surprise to contest creator Vern Gorham.

“When I first thought of doing this contest I hoped to create a fun evening for all, both audience and singers alike, and hoped to sell about 200 tickets,” Gorham says. “I did not anticipate selling out all 320 tickets by the afternoon of the show and having to turn away over 100 people at the door, as there were no more seats available for them. Creston’s support was amazing and the show was a complete success.”

Following up on the success of the first contest, Gorham will be getting ready for “Creston’s Best Singer 2011” early in the New Year, with a few changes.
In spite of the positive response from the audience to the first show, Gorham believes there needs to be some changes, including the timing of future contests so they don’t take place in early winter when cold and flu viruses are most active. Several contestants were affected by seasonal viruses but still managed to sing. Upcoming contests will be moved to late winter/early spring.

Secondly, Gorham plans to change the scoring for judges so that obtaining each singer’s score will be a much quicker process.

But the biggest change is that there will be two contests in 2011. The first will probably occur in late February and be an audition. It will be open to up to 40 contestants who will have about two-and-a-half minutes each to sing.
Each person in the audience will have a scorecard and will judge each singer. At the end of the night all scorecards will be gathered and scores will be totalled over the following few days.

The top 20 singers, as voted by the audience, will go on to the second contest which will be similar to the one in November. The anticipated date of that contest is late March.

Gorham is looking for singers for the first contest. If you are interested in singing, please contact him at 428-0305 or verngorham@telus.net. For further details, please visit the contest Web site at www.kootenaysbestsinger.com.

As many people were unable to get tickets to the last contest, Gorham reminds interested people to buy tickets early to guarantee themselves a seat. Tickets will be available at Black Bear Books.