The Oak Point Music Festival will strike a heartfelt chord this summer as it honours the region’s rich fiddling tradition and the educators who helped it thrive.
Taking place Saturday, July 12 from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Oak Point Sports Grounds, this year’s festival will include A Tribute to the Fiddle, Red River Style — a special nod to the St. Laurent School music program and the legacy of its founder, Hugh Sigurdson, and longtime instructor Mark Morriseau.
The program began in 1999 after Cameron Dyck, a teacher with the Frontier School Division, contacted Sigurdson, then principal of St. Laurent School, to propose launching a fiddle program. Sigurdson secured funding to get it off the ground, with Dyck teaching its first year.
The following year, with support from parents and local musicians, Morriseau stepped in to lead the program. Over the next 24 years, he taught more than 200 students and helped nurture a vibrant local tradition. Morriseau retired in June 2024, and the program is now led by one of his former students, Jason Appleyard.
Several graduates of the program — including Appleyard, the Gaudry Boys, Cameron Ducharme, and Donald and Emma Futros — are featured in the festival’s music lineup.
Hosted beneath the towering oak trees of the Oak Point Sports Grounds, where events have been held since 1935, the festival invites guests to tap their feet and take a spin on the outdoor dance floor as the sounds of the fiddle fill the summer air.
