The Midland Festival of the Arts is open to any high school student who pursues the road of music and dance. Consisting of dance workshops, classes for aspiring songwriters, classes for those whose passion is acting, and a class to help those who will be soon auditioning for college, this event is certainly a life changing experience for those who have a heart of music and the fiery passion for the fine arts.  Alliance High School students were able to attend the festival this last Saturday on the 22^nd of March. “You guys are lucky to go, you are going to have so much fun!” was Ian Nelson’s remark to the freshmen attending the festival. Ian is a senior of Alliance High School and has gone to Fremont for this festival each year of his high school career.

The Midland Festival of the Arts in Fremont, Nebraska provides free VIP performance workshops. These workshops are taught by world-class artists such as Adryon de León, the lead vocalist at Disney, California, Jordan Mantey, the Young American’s associate director of Michigan, Erick “Spider” Paul, a professional hip-hop choreographer from California, Octavius Womack, a gospel artist from California, Jed Logue, an improv master of Nebraska, and Trish Ryan, the Midland dance director. The day is filled with fun activities for the students who wish to attend.

The day ends with a concert for the general public in which all students showcase their new abilities. Between each show, the Midland University students perform pieces of their own while involving the artists listed above. After each group has performed, all the students came together to perform a piece that was meant to inspire a flash mob within the crowd.

Students from every school agreed that the events of the day certainly had an impact upon their lives, and similarly said that their love for the arts had drastically improved. When I asked Tegan Ramirez about his experience, he simply said, “It has changed my life every single time I have gone!”