The next time they meet together, it will be on stage at the BCNE on Friday night, and it will be a drop-the-mic night.
The finalists for this year's Limelight Quest competition have been determined. The last round of semifinals was held this past weekend and now these performers look ahead to the finals: Caitriona Hogan; Raylene Westlund; Selina Bomberger; Bryanna Davidson; Sean Robinson; Arilynne Barks; Paige Danelle Johnston; and Kiziah Arias.
The great eight from this year's singing competition will take their turns on stage in Kin 3, with a number of prizes to be won, and an especially coveted grand prize. The items up for the winning include professional photo shoots, studio recording sessions, performance slots at local festivals and concert stages, and also some cash.
Vanessa Wittstruck remembers it all clearly. She still has a gut reaction as she remembers her name being called out as the 2015 winner of Limelight Quest. She will be there for the finals as a guest performer, and she expects some empathetic butterflies will be flying in her own tummy as the finalists perform and wait for the results.
"We all hung out backstage. All the artists knew each other by then, we were all comfortable with each other, but I remember being so nervous," Wittstruck said. "I'd say for each finalist to just take a big deep breath before you go out on stage, and tell yourself that you've got this. The audience wants to hear you enjoying yourself. Just have faith in yourself, and that will improve your personna on stage 10 times over, and the audience won't notice or won't mind your mistakes or your nerves."
She remembers most of all the anticipation, once the performances were all through, waiting for the judges to announce the winners.
"Terrifying," she recalled. "It went fourth place, then third place, then second place - I was squeezing my friend's arm so hard - then it was a delayed reaction as I processed that it was my name they just said as first place. It was just a pure adrenaline."
Wittstruck has gone on to a year as full of reality as the promise it showed that night when she got top honours. She performed at Summerfest 2015, then at the Coldsnap Festival, several appearances at Shiraz Cafe's weekly live music spotlight, and on top of that growth as a live performer she is writing songs for an album. She already has six tunes ready and an eight-hour recording session still ahead of her at Cheslatta Studio as part of last year's prize package. She is pleased with the steps her music career has taken and knows that a similar fate awaits at least one of the 2016 finalists, too.
The competitive concert on Friday night starts at 6:30 p.m., and the audience gets to vote as part of picking the final winner. Regular BCNE admission applies to attend. Wittstruck is also booked to be one of the entertainers on the fall fair's local entertainment stage so her growing fan base can hear her latest work.
