Particularly noted in the covering article in ISKRA No.120, were exceptional performances by the Grand Forks Men’s Choir and the youth choir from the Christovoye Local in Grand Forks.
So enthusiastic was the general response to this gathering, that it was unanimously agreed that a similar typeof event should be held annually, and that the next one should take place in Grand Forks.
In 1947, the Union of Youth Council consisted ofthree people – Paul G. Samsonoff (Chairman), Eli A.Popoff (Secretary), and William E. Kootnekoff, member. (Throughout the first part of the year the post ofSecretary was filled by Margaret Samoyloff, who found it necessary to resign mid-term.)
William Kootnekoff had been instrumental in organizing the U.S.C.C. Male Choir yet in 1945, and on May5, 1947 this choir participated in the Kootenay Festival in Trail, BC. It was at this Festival that the thought came to William that it would be a wonderful thing if the Doukhobor youth could put on a similar annual event of their own, and upon his return from Trail, he passed on this notion to his two colleagues on the Union
of Youth Council.
At the Annual Convention of the Union of Youth, held on November 30-December 1, 1947, the concept of an annual festival was placed on the agenda. This resulted in a formal decision being made that each season’s activity would hence forth culminate in a yearly festival featuring the cultural work of the Union of Youth, and showing the progress each of the locals had made throughout the season. A system was devised, whereby certificates would be awarded to those locals and individual members who demonstrated special merit in their efforts during their Festival participation.
On February 27, 1948, another “mini-festival” was held in Ootischenia, similar to the one held at Easter time the previous year, but this time only Kootenay Locals took part (a kind of “predecessor” to future Talent Nights), and the first actual Festival was slated to take place at the Sirotskoye Meeting Home in Grand Forks on March 28-29, 1948. Unfortunately, this historic, ornate structure was destroyed by arson just a week or so prior to the scheduled event. So strong was the momentum for the Festival, however, that a volunteer work party of over a hundred men from both areas, working feverishly, cleaned up and adapted for use as a meeting hall, the abandoned but large old C.C.U.B. community blacksmith shop which stood below the Fructova School, next to the old brick works and clay pit.
Although located in an unlikely “auditorium”, the first annual U.S.C.C. Union of Youth Festival took place as scheduled, and with spectacular success! No one at the time suspected that the first Festival would be followed by 59 more such events, and that they would be held, not in an old “blacksmith shop”, but in beautiful, modern Community Centres of the Union of piritual Communities of Christ, and they would be acclaimed throughout the land, and even overseas...
D. E. (Jim) Popoff (Ed. Note: For additional information and numerous historic photos about the USCC Union of Youth Festivals over the past six decades, see the program booklets from the 40th and 50th Annual Festivals (1987 and 1997), as well as ISKRA issues from those years.)
Re-printed for ISKRA article on the 60th anniversary, by permission.
