Talent find registration deadline approaching

With the registration deadline closing in, the organizer of a talent show is encouraging musicians to enter to raise money to help Havre Beneath the Streets with repairs and upgrades.

Registration for the Havre Eagles Club's first North Central Montana Music Talent Find ends Monday, Sept. 9. 

"Anybody that's half-way good, the trophies will look great in their house," Havre Eagles Club Manager Tom Farnham said.

The talent find will be Saturday, Sept. 14, and is the most recent of the fundraisers for Havre Beneath the Streets to make repairs to the sidewalk in front of the Eagles Club.

Earlier this year, Havre Beneath the Streets had to close several exhibits that are located under the sidewalk and the handicap lift which made the tour handicap-accessible because of several leaks which were causing damage to the exhibits. Beneath the Streets is looking at an $80,000 tourism grant, which is a two-to-one match grant, and needs to raise $40,000 before it is able to apply.

The event will include live musical performances, a hamburger feed from 6 to 8 p.m., which will be $6 and include hamburgers, salad, beans and chips, he said. He added that the bar will be open and the event will also be holding a 50/50 raffle as well as raffling off a quad runner which Beneath the Streets started advertising and selling tickets for in June.

The door fee for the event will be $5, Farnham said. He said that the door fee and the money raised in the hamburger feed will go directly to the Beneath the Streets sidewalk fund. 

People are welcome from all across the north-central Montana region, Farnham said.

Participants can register in six different categories, solo female older than 25, solo female younger than 25, solo male older than 25, solo male younger than 25, dual and band. The event has a $25 entry fee, which will be paid back to the winners.

Participants need to register ahead of time, he said. So far no one has registered for the event, but he has received several calls from interested parties.

He added that people need to register to allow the two back-up bands, The Milk River Band and Blind Luck, time to practice and learn the songs the participants will by playing or singing. 

He said participants must list four songs, although they will only play three of them. 

He said participants can also call to say they will register if they are unable to get the application in by Monday. He said the latest people can call will be Friday, Sept. 13, at noon.

The event will have three judges with musical backgrounds judging the contestants, he said. The judges will be Mike Hamilton, former owner of Havre Creative Leisure, Gerald Stiffarm, station manager for Fort Belknap Indian Reservation's radio station KGVA, and Mike Corcoran, former station manager and founder of Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation radio station KHEW.

Participants will also be judged in three separate criteria: overall performance, originality and musicianship, he said. He added that the winner of each category will receive the entry fees of everyone within their category as well as a trophy. 

Farnham said that it would be great if they could get three to four people participating in each category.

He said that he hosted a talent find at the Great Northern Fair about 15 years ago, and it always had a fairly good turnout, although after time he ended the event.

He would like to see Havre's talent come forward and compete, he said. He added that if the event goes well he would be interested in hosting the event annually.