This fall, the city of Minneapolis decided to cancel its Holidazzle festival due to budget cuts. The event, which is regularly scheduled for the winter, involves fun holiday games, performances and features local food stands for visitors. This cancellation will have a large effect on a few of Park’s school clubs — namely National Honor Society (NHS) and Park Singers.
Holidazzle proved to be a key performance for Park Singers. According to junior Declan Gaines, a Park Singers member, Holidazzle was an opportunity to rehearse and modify anything that wasn’t working well to ensure that future performances ran smoothly.
“Holidazzle was a pretty significant performance for Park Singers because it was the first performance of our winter music,” Gaines said. “It gave us a chance to identify any points of weakness and fine tune some things before the next performance.”
The event had a different audience than typical Park Singers performances. According to junior Park Singers member Sela Myers, it was a fun experience for many participants.
“Holidazzle seems like a super fun experience to perform at because it is a different audience than what Park Singers usually perform for,” Myers said.
The cancellation also affected Park’s National Honor Society students. According to NHS advisor Lindsay Meyer, the elimination has a negative effect due to the loss of a volunteer opportunity that was accessible and valuable to many students.
“In the past it has provided the possibility of many days where students could volunteer,” Meyer said. “It was positive to have a group project so flexible for student schedules.”
According to Gaines, the cancellation is detrimental to the group’s confidence. He said the winter songs are a big focal point for group morale and not being able to perform them as much removes enthusiasm.
“Having one of these special performances taken away removes a lot of the excitement of our winter songs and performances,” Gaines said. “We really love to perform and in December, we get to perform our songs more than any other time throughout the year.”
According to Myers, it is unlikely that there will be a replacement performance but the cancellation won’t take away from their other performances.
“I’m not sure if there will be a replacement performance taking place but there are many other performances in December that we can look forward to and focus on,” said Myers. “It is important to the people in Park Singers that there are many fun performances, but it is definitely okay that it is canceled and no one is upset.”
Meyer said she hopes to continue on with volunteer opportunities, although Holidazzle has been a large opportunity within the Minneapolis community.
“I do love our Minneapolis community, and I am sad that the businesses in our downtown will not experience visitors from the Holidazzle this year,” Meyer said. “NHS volunteers can help in many places, so I hope we will be able to continue our service despite its cancellation.”
Holidazzle is scheduled to be back in full swing in 2024. More information can be found on the Holidazzle website at www.holidazzle.com.
