The History of the festival
The Penticton Kiwanis Music, Dance and Speech Arts Festival was founded as the Okanagan Valley Music Festival in 1926. Today, Penticton alone annually hosts over 1300 competitive and non-competitive young amateur performing arts entries in 9 disciplines. These include strings, guitar, piano, classical voice, musical theatre,speech arts, dance and woodwinds and brass. Respected adjudicators from Western Canada and the United States critique each performance and numerous scholarships and awards are presented at two Highlights Concerts held in early May.