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Cariboo Chilcotin Youth Fiddle Society’s hard work pays dividends with successful showcase

Roaring Fiddles in the 1920s-Fiddling with the Radio Dial show a roaring success

The Cariboo Chilcotin Youth Fiddle Society took the audience back in time to the golden age of radio with their live performances May 14 and 15 in the Gibraltar Room.

It can be hard to imagine now with the internet and smart phones stuffed with endless apps how the radio used to be the height of new technology, but the Roaring Fiddles show painted a picture for patrons through a range of music, theatre and dance.

Opening with a prairie couple in their living room, the show illustrated the radical changes to life at home when radio arrived, from ordering sheet music in the mail to suddenly being able to tune in live to news and sports from around the world, enjoy music of all kinds and send messages over the airwaves. Truly, the radio changed people’s lives.

The event itself was three years in the making and the hard work clearly paid off.

Leslie Rowse, society president, introduced the performance and said it was a “strange and bumpy ride” to get the show to the stage, but they were “thrilled to be here in person.”

Harry Jennings was the 1920’s radio announcer, and there were period-appropriate radio ad jingles, incredible solo vocals, costume changes, theatrical touches, and multiple dance numbers, all threaded together by a prairie couple’s narration through drought, war and prairie family life.

The youngest member of the group was six and the age range of performers was as broad as the artistic mediums the group included in the show.

Opening with a 1920’s dance party you might imagine coming straight off the pages of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby, the spectacular presentation moved through the music of ragtime, swing, blues, bluegrass, country and more.

It was a massive success well worth catching live. A true testament to the value of hard work, the performers put on an incredible show well worth the time and price of admission.

Read more: Cariboo Chilcotin Youth Fiddlers preparing for live concert

Read more: New cookbook revives Thyme for Tea, supports Cariboo Chilcotin Youth Fiddle Society



ruth.lloyd@wltribune.com

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Ruth Lloyd

About the Author: Ruth Lloyd

After moving back to Williams Lake, where I was born and graduated from school, I joined the amazing team at the Williams Lake Tribune in 2021.
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