qathet Festival of Performing ArtsOur Story

Dwight Hall was the venue for the first Powell River Music Festival in 1945. Former Mayor Stewart Alsgard as a young boy, participated in the piano discipline at the very first festival. There was only one adjudicator for all disciplines that first year. The initial event was organized by a group of community volunteers who continued for several years.

Former Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk participated in the festival in the early 1960s when he was a student at Grief Point Elementary School.

Successive School District 47 trustees and staff were supportive of the festival, providing transportation from the various schools so students could perform. It was recognition of the importance of performing arts in their development.

For nearly 40 years, the festival was held under the auspices of the Pythian Sisters, the first female organization founded in Powell River in 1916. They were assisted by their male counterparts, Knights of Pythias, who began here in 1912.

Three generations of Joan McDonald's family were members of the two organizations and helped with organizing the annual event.

Powell River Academy of Music was founded in 1981and became a multi-year source of participants in the festival with its many musical offerings and a dedicated faculty of instructors and staff. Many students who participated in the festival went on to make a career of performing or teaching. James Hall was used as one of the festival's venues for many years.

Performing Arts BC's annual provincial festival that involved competitions and classes for its member festivals around BC was hosted by the local festival committee in 1997.

When the festival was in danger of folding because community volunteers, who took over from the Pythian Sisters, could not continue organizing the event, the Rotary Club of Powell River offered to support it in 2003.

Rotarians did not have a lot of music knowledge but applied their Four-Way Test to organizing. Powell River was designated a Cultural Capital of Canada in 2004, and the festival received a portion of the $250,000 funding allotted for that honour. The money was used to pay festival alumni expenses to return here for a special concert at Evergreen Theatre where they had performed as youngsters.

Performing Arts BC provincial festival was hosted by the local festival in 2015. It was the second time the event had been held in this community and gave performers recommended to the five-day event to perform in front of a hometown audience.

Dance was added as a discipline to the festival in 2013 and since that time has attracted the highest number of entries.

In 2020, a special concert was held to celebrate the festival's 75th anniversary. Local performers from past festivals were invited back to for an encore presentation with former Mayor Stewart Alsgard serving as emcee.

As part of the 80th festival in 2024, Cuore Piano Trio from Poland performed at a Celebration Concert. It was a collaborative endeavour between the festival and PRISMA.

St. George’s Senior Concert Band shared the stage with qathet Symphony Orchestra and qathet Concert Band in a Collaboration Concert during the festival in 2025.