For almost 70 years Moose Jaw has been the host city for the annual Moose Jaw Band and Choral Festival

This week provides choirs, jazz ensembles and concert bands the opporunity to perform in front of an adjudicator, with the hopes of applying the corrections to improve their performance pieces. 

Aspiring singers, musicians and more have come from all over Canada to be a part of the educational week that features public performances and workshops for attendees. 

But it's not just visitors who are embracing this experience; local Moose Javians are taking part and competing during the band and choral festival, too. 

"We have a great music program in Moose Jaw and the fact that it's here is really cool [as] we're not a big town," said Ha'Keena Maneso, who is a performer in Vanier Collegiate High School's Chamber Choir. "It's great to take comfort in the fact that we have stuff here in Moose Jaw and I'm glad that we have these oppourtunities as a Vanier student."

Like most competitions the Band and Choral Festival has participants share their talents with adjudicators, who then critque and compliment what they just saw.

"We perform for adjudicators and then afterwards they have written down or recorded some of the things they want to correct or would to add," explained Maneso. "Afterwards they show us and do it with us - it's very hands on [and] it's nice because we end up improving a lot in a short amount of time."

Each night groups from all across the prairie provinces who signed up for the festival perform at the Mae Wilson Theatre, with the final night show on Wednesday.