The annual Olds & District Kiwanis Music Festival was hit by a rather sour note on Wednesday, March 20.
Water from the spring snowmelt knocked out a transformer, cutting out power across the Community Learning Campus for about five hours.
"One of the transformers owned by the college was submerged in water and...shorted out as a result," FortisAlberta communications advisor Kevin Haslbeck said. "It appears that the outage was restricted to the college, but impacted all of its facilities."
"The lights went out in the theatre about 2:50. At the time, our adjudicator was speaking with the performers," festival coordinator Wendy Durieux said.
"Thank goodness for cellphones. We all put them on flashlight mode and shone them onto the stage so that the adjudicator could finish the adjudications."
The festival was moved from the TransCanada Theatre to the band room, which has lots of natural light.
"(We) were able to have all of the participants continue," festival board member Tom Christensen said.
"This was definitely a first for our festival," Durieux said.
