This year’s edition of Dauphin’s Countryfest may not have sold out, but given the heat of the three-day festival, organizers feel it was a tremendous success.

Prior to Sunday’s evening main stage entertainment, Countryfest president Duane McMasters was pleased with how everything went this year.

“We had some pretty fantastic weather. We had a couple sprinkles of rain here and there. The heat has been pretty intense. So far no problems with that,” he said, adding the crowds were great all weekend. “I’m hearing nothing but good things about our entertainment. Haven’t really had any security incidents. In all honesty, it’s one of those things where you spend so much time trying to get here and then you get here and you’re amazed when it goes well.”

That just proves when you having a good team and doing a lot of hard work ahead of time makes things happen when the event finally does roll around, he added.

This year, organizers focused on bringing in more Indigenous artists, the result of a partnership with Indigenous Music Manitoba to develop an Indigenous artist showcase.

“We’ve got a lot of great musical artists like Mitchell Makoons, Nelson Little, Desiree Dorion obviously is a local name. (Sunday) we had the Ivan Flett Memorial Dancers, the Throat Singers, which I’ve never seen before and I thought it was really awesome. It was pretty cool,” McMaster said, adding he hopes to continue in the future.

“We definitely did deliberately do that. We just wanted to showcase our Manitoba talent. We wanted to showcase the Indigenous talent. Just to show what we’ve got here in Manitoba.”

McMaster hopes to continue that showcase next year.

“I think it would be fantastic. I loved having them on the main stage here and everybody was really thrilled to actually be appearing on the main stage at Dauphin’s Countryfest. It’s a little bit of a prestigious thing. We’ve been around long enough that that’s sort of a pretty exciting place to be,” he said.

Although the final numbers won’t be known for a while, McMaster was pleased with the weekend’s attendance.

“The stands have looked good. Our numbers are good this year. We’ve had great attendance at the shows, up top has looked good. We’ve had a lot of people coming through the gates. Overall, I think things are looking really good,” he said.

Because this is his first year as president, McMaster is just happy everything went well.

“Whether it was real or imagined, I felt like there was a bit of pressure on me, because I’ve never done this before in this position. So I’m just happy that things are actually flowing smoothly,” he said, adding he only got to watch one act, catching half of Snake Oil’s show, Saturday night.
Relieving some of the pressure is the work of the board to make things run as smoothly as it did this weekend.

“We have such a fantastic team here. I’m one of 13 directors on our volunteer board and all of them just do a ton of work. Then we’ve got our office staff, we’ve got out summer students, we’ve got our site crew. No one person can take credit for anything out here. It’s a team effort for everything,” he said. “And it always blows my mind that, at the end of the day, we’ve got maybe a dozen paid employees at our peak and our 13 board members and we make this happen with a whole bunch of volunteer support from our community. I’m so proud to be part of the group that makes this happen.”

Even though this year’s festival was still going on, discussions for next year’s lineups had already begun.

You have to start looking at entertainers a year out, McMaster said, so organizers have already had some preliminary discussions with some entertainers.

McMaster appreciates the support the festival has received year after year.

“Our volunteers who come out and support us. All of the people that come back year after year and buy tickets and come see us,” he said, adding he saw some people from Texas in Vermillion Park, last week, who came to Dauphin for Countryfest. “It’s unbelievable that people would come that far to our little event out here in Dauphin. So thanks to everybody,” he said.

The Dauphin Regional Comprehensive Secondary School held its convocation, Saturday, celebrating the graduation of 121 students.

Matthew Zurba was this year’s valedictorian.

Prior to beginning his speech, Zurba donned a black t-shirt and glasses to honour his favourite teacher, Mr. Cote, who he loves and respects.

“Mr. Cote, you have made a huge impact on many of us in a very positive way. I think this will help boost my confidence up here,” Zurba stated.

Zurba then told his classmates he is proud of them before offering some thanks.

“First of all, Google, you’ve helped immensely and I’m so glad you were there, textbooks are awful,” he stated, before thanking all of the teachers who made it all possible. “Without you guys, we wouldn’t be here, because whether you hated or loved teaching us, you passed us. Many of you have left a big mark in our lives. You helped us grow into the people we are today. You’ve taught us that in the real world, life isn’t going to be easy, but that everything will be okay if you work hard and enjoy yourself.”

Zurba then thanked the parents for the countless hours fund-raising, not just for graduation, but for everything over the years.

“We would not be here without all of your support, whether it was telling us to do our homework, working hard to feed us, or being there for us during tough times. You’ve truly shaped us into the people we are today,” he said.

Zurba took the time to mention two teachers who will be retiring at the end of this school year, Ms. Tymchuk and Mr. Bennet.

“The school truly won’t be the same without you two,” he said.

Zurba then turned his attention to his classmates, stating they started off as kids playing with Lego blocks and Rubik’s cubes.

“Then, we moved on to fidget spinners and phones. The next stage was probably the biggest one, it was puberty. We started learning all about deodorant and relationships,” he said. “Fast forward to now, and most of us know about deodorant, but only a few have a good idea about relationships.”

High school, he added, has been quite the journey, starting in Grade 9, when they were all new and many were nervous.

“Some had older siblings and knew people, while some were brand new to a Dauphin school. As the year went on, we got to know even more people in our classes. Friendships were being made, old ones were getting toxic,” he said. “This was all new to us, but we branched out, played on sport teams or were in band. Some learned that they loved the trades, but this was the beginning of meeting different people.”

Near the end of that first year of high school, COVID hit. School was out and students had to learn online.

“It was truly crazy. Microsoft Teams was used and marking and teaching was hard,” he said, adding many students looked for jobs since there was little else they could do. “The end of Grade 9 was truly a pandemic in the school,” Zurba said.

Grade 10, Zurba said, was kind of a blur, because that was the year where everyone wore masks for the whole year and the scheduled changed with some students attending classes, Mondays and Wednesdays and the rest on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“This sucked, we didn’t see a lot of our friends. This year was honestly a test to see who our true friends were and were not. Some people didn’t talk if they weren’t the same day, and this changed people,” he said. “Many also worked more, and were a bit anti-social. With no sports, people were bored, and many found the gym, once it was open. This definitely wasn’t what we were used to, but it quickly became the new normal. Learning was different, half was online and it was hard to learn, and teach. It was, for sure, a year we’d like to, but won’t forget.”

Things started to get back to normal in Grade 11, Zurba said, though trips could quickly be cancelled if someone tested positive for COVID. And it was a year where students started looking toward to the future.

“This was our year to really start looking into what we might want to do. A lot of people either pick sciences, trades, or business. This was where we might be surrounded with some people with similar interests, and started saving up some money,” Zurba said. “It’s a year to find out what you may be passionate about, and to start working towards that.”

Finally, it was Grade 12 and everyone, Zurba said, was looking forward to the end of the year.

“And now it’s here. This year was one to remember, because it’s when things started getting back to normal completely. We didn’t need shields in the office, and got to go on many trips for sports, band, etc. School was full-time this year, which was awesome,” he said. “A lot of us slowly figured out which direction we wanted to go after school. This was interesting, because you hear about where everyone is going and what they want to do, but you realize you may not see them again. It’s a scary thought, but also extremely exciting because we are about to start our lives as adults.”

As the graduates start adulthood, Zurba said, they will realize that life isn’t easy as they will have bills and taxes to pay, and they will start to look for serious relationships to start a family.

“I’m making this sound like it’s bad, but it’s not the worst. Starting now and when we move on from high school, I would like everyone to pick one thing they can work on for themselves, and to continue working on that thing for yourself. This will help you grow into the best version of yourself. If you make realistic goals, it will drive you to hit them,” he added.

Zurba used himself as an example. Having struggled with an eating disorder for two years, Zurba sought help and was able to overcome his struggles.

“After a while, I slowly was able to eat out and relax a little bit and realize that food is energy. Once I got more comfortable I was able to stop tracking and now I can eat a donut or even a box of donuts with the boys if I really want to. This took me about 10 months to achieve,” he said. “This story isn’t to talk about me the whole time, it’s an example of someone who had a goal and achieved it with some help and the right people around. When you really want to achieve something, you can do it.”

Once they enter the real world, Zurba said, they will make mistakes, but they will learn from them.

“When we get to wherever we all want to be, we have to be ourselves. It’s important to not be ashamed of who you are. There is no need to put on a show for anyone, because there will be someone else who loves that weirdness of yours, or whatever it is,” he said. “This is important to know, because you should strive to do what you truly want to do in life. Be a doctor, a small business owner, run for prime minister. Who cares? Our goal in life is to enjoy it. We don’t have to do anything we don’t want to do, but we will have to work for what we do want to do.”

Zurba then took a trip down memory lane, reminiscing about some of the school trips, COVID, getting back to normal from COVID, as well as the devious lick era.

“These are all things we will remember, all the different bus rides, the conversions at breaks, the bathrooms being used for unnecessary things,” he added. “Whether you think or not right now, high school was a fun time.”

Before ending his speech, Zurba spoke about his longtime friend Chris Swintak, who was killed in an accident in Gilbert Plains this spring.

“He was supposed to be here today with us. I would like to give my condolences to any friends or extended family of his. I knew him for a big chunk of my life, and worked with him for almost three years. He was an incredible person and is missed,” he said.

In closing, Zurba offered his congratulations to the Class of 2023.

“I would like to say that we did it guys. We graduated. It’s our time to show the world what we’re made of.”