The annual Moose Jaw Band and Choir festival has filled the downtown area with musicians, teachers, and music lovers alike, and it wraps up tomorrow.

Dating all the way back to the 1940's, it celebrates live music and has evolved to become a very unique experience.

David Dick, a jazz band clinician, has been a part of the festival for years, having performed as a student when he was a kid, and a teacher now, gives him a unique view on the festival. "It's a very good perspective, that you try to give to the kids that are playing. But it's hard in the moment when you're a kid who's nervous about playing in front of strangers. It's still a little bit difficult to understand the bigger picture of it but I certainly have a lot more perspective now on performances and really I've just become less scared of making mistakes in front of people. The more you speak in front of audiences, the more you perform as a soloist, you realize that everybody's going to make some mistakes sometimes. And once you have that freedom you can play a lot more easily and then fewer mistakes actually happen. Because you're a little less worried about each and every one of them."

Dick said he remembers these kinds of things being quite influential in his own drive and inspiration for doing more and more music. "I think it's an amazing opportunity to get to go and try to improve yourself and the way that you play. It's just another way of working at raising the bar of excellence for your own self and for working as a team or ensemble. It's an amazing opportunity that is sometimes more inclusive than the elite sports teams. You can have a lot more people involved in these higher level festival competitions where you're getting an opportunity to perform for national level clinicians that can help you to tweak what you do, and how to take your level and improve it little bits at a time."

In total, over 4000 students, musicians and teachers are in town to perform and celebrate different genres of music.

Teachers and adjudicators are given opportunities to interact with students and Dick said this festival is unique for how the students can learn and grow.

"It is very rare to find. It's wonderful to come to a festival and find out that you have so much time to work with the ensembles. It's one thing to get to write some notes to them or speak some notes to them in recordings and give them some tips on things. But I think it's much more memorable for students and much more hands on when the adjudicator can come up after the performance and work with the students through the same music again. So we get an opportunity to come up and get the bands to play again. They're often a little more relaxed at that point because they've done their performance. And then we can dig in to the music together and enjoy playing along. I bring my own instrument with me and play along to demonstrate or to play with the band. I feel like that can be one of the most inspirational parts about the festival and it is a rare thing to find. You have to have set up the festival in the right way so that you have enough time with each ensemble instead of rushing to get to the next group. I do like the way they set it up here in Moose Jaw."

The festival wraps up tomorrow night, and many of the events are free to attend. Go to mjbandfestival.com for the full list.