The Highwood Lions Music Festival is back for its 47th year thanks to the long-term sponsorship of the Highwood Lions Club based in High River.
Second year festival director Chelsea Bustin is expecting it to be one of their best yet with close to a record number of students signed up.
"We have over 350, actually closer to 400 participants that are going to perform with us over the next few weeks in High River and Okotoks and we are so excited. It's a passion of mine because 20 years ago I was one of those participants. And they just haven't quite been able to get rid of me, now some of my own piano students are part of it. It's just a joy to be able to share it with the next generation."
The festival is a non-profit annual festival for students in the foothills, which is professionally adjudicated.
Bustin added, there's a wide variety of disciplines the festival features too.
"We've got speech arts, guitar, cello, violin, voice, musical theatre, piano and some bands. We even got a steel pan drum ensemble coming."
The two-week event runs in Okotoks at the Alliance Church for voice, musical theatre and speech arts, and all the rest of the performances are being held at the United Church in High River.
It runs from March 18 to 28 with the adjudicators showcase performance on March 30 at 2 p.m.
"We have a really fun event, free for the whole community to come, it's called our Adjudicators Showcase. And our adjudicators in every discipline, pick their favourite performances, and we throw a concert of all of those top performances, you get to see a little bit of everything, plus you get to have cake and ice cream with us after."
They're still looking for some volunteers to help out. Go to their website for more.