Osoyoos barber Sue Gerrard, who captured top spot during the first two Osoyoos Idol competitions in 2012 and 2013, was edged out of first place by Dawn MacRae at last year’s competition. Organizers have announced that the Osoyoos Idol competition for 2015 has been cancelled and put on hiatus. (Richard McGuire photo)
There will be no Osoyoos Idol crowned this year.
The summer karaoke competition has been put on hiatus after a change in personnel at Better at Home left the organization without enough time to organize the event.
Better at Home is a program run through the Desert Sun Counselling and Resource Centre that aims to help seniors remain independent in their own homes.
For the past four years it has put on Osoyoos Idol as a fundraiser. The event typically drew several hundred people to Gyro Park to watch more than a dozen singers belt out karaoke classics for a panel of judges.
In January, Brittany von Burg took over as program coordinator for Better at Home. She replaced Stacy Little, who in the past had been one of the event’s instrumental organizers.
In an interview July 9 von Borg said she hasn’t had time to plan Osoyoos Idol this year because she’s been focused on learning her new role and putting programming in place.
“I just started in January and I was just getting the programs running so there’s not enough time this year to coordinate Osoyoos Idol,” she said.
“Our clients are our main priority, so we want to make sure they are taken care of before we take on any other tasks.”
Von Burg said while she has seen keen interest from the community to see Osoyoos Idol continue, she is still unsure what the future of the competition is.
“It all depends on where our program is at, because it does take a lot of manpower and volunteer hours [to organize]. So we just have to get to a spot where we can serve all of our clients with their needs and then we can do that,” she said.
While the event was a fundraiser for the Better at Home, von Burg said last year it brought in less than $1,000 and the organization won’t be significantly affected by the loss of funds.
Sue Gerrard is a two-time Osoyoos Idol Winner. She said she is disappointed to see the competition get canned because it brought out a lot of people and was a great use for Gyro Park. But she does think that the hiatus offers organizers an opportunity.
She admitted that if the competition had gone ahead this year she wouldn’t have entered because the format is fairly restrictive.
Limiting the event to singers, she said, means much of Osoyoos’ talent is missed and a format change might be needed.
“I would like to see something a bit more challenging,” she said.
She thinks that if the competition is revamped it could come back as a multi-category talent show, giving all of the town’s most talented a chance to strut their stuff.
And would the two-time champ return to the stage for an “Osoyoos has Talent” style event?
“Maybe,” she said with a sly grin.
TREVOR NICHOLS
Osoyoos Times
