The Yellowhead Rotary Arts Festival registration is open for all performers and artists until February 15.

Participants can register in any category such as voice and handbells, band and instrumental, piano, fabric and arts, drawing, painting, sculpture, jewellery, speech, creative writing, photography and pottery.

Heading into its 11th year, the festival runs in Hinton, Edson, Grande Cache and Jasper, with each community showcasing different arts.

“We try to have it where the events are most popular. For example, our creative writing is only ever held in Edson. So it might be one thing that could move to other communities based on numbers or interest level. We are just going with trends in the previous years,” said Christina Johns, festival director.

She said their main goal is to have the festival grow big enough that it can provide everything to everybody, but for now, people are still welcome to travel to the other communities to see what people in those communities are doing.

All the categories will have adjudicators to give positive feedback to the artists and performers, with many of the categories also having workshops that can be taken with the adjudicators.

“It’s an educational experience for the artist or musician… you offer outside experience and have people come in and say ‘hey, this is really awesome, keep doing what you’re doing. Here are some ideas that maybe you might like to think about in the future’. Not necessarily to tell them what they are doing is wrong, it’s just to give them that extra ‘oh yeah, I never thought of that before,’” Johns said.

The festival is an opportunity for artists and performers to gain experience and learn something in their field without having to drive to Edmonton, Johns said, as most workshops like that are often held in the city.

Anyone is welcome to register who wants to learn more on what they are already doing from someone who is educated or has experience in the same kind of discipline, and no performing experience is needed.
This year the fabric arts portion will be displayed in Hinton before the exhibit travels to Jasper, while the visual arts portion, featuring drawing, painting, sculpture, jewellery, photography and pottery will be showcased in all the communities. The creative writing portion will be held in Edson.

Participants can register online at  www.yraf.com, or by phone at 780-865-2200, and volunteer and sponsorship opportunities are also available. Registration deadline is February 15, and the festival runs from April 16 to 30.