Stepping onto the stage at the Minnesota District Fine Arts Festival, senior Cecilia Brown was overwhelmed when she realized she was performing in front of a huge crowd in a competition setting.

“It was pretty nerve-wracking because there was like 300 people there, but it was really fun overall, and I got to meet a lot of people,” Brown said. “I have performed in front of a crowd that large but I haven’t done it in a competition type of environment.”

Brown said she heard about the competition, which was held May 11, through her church. She received a superior in two divisions and will be heading to Orlando for the National competition, which will be held July 30-Aug. 3.

“It’s called Fine Arts competition. They had three judges, and I entered into two divisions: vocal female and vocal Spanish. I got a superior in both and an invitation to Orlando so I’m doing Nationals there,” Brown said.

According to their website, the Fine Arts Festival is a part of Assemblies of God Youth Ministries and over 65,000 high school juniors and seniors participate in the annual competition.

Brown said despite her putting together her performance last-minute, she was pleased with her results.

“Deciding the songs I did it pretty late in the game — a week ahead — but they just kind of spoke to me,” Brown said. “There’s a lot of the requirements like it has to be this certain kind of song and I did it through River Valley, which is this church, so you had to be associated with a church.”

Brown said she might change her performance before Nationals, although she still has time to figure that out.

“I might switch it up. I haven’t decided but I think I’ll keep the Spanish one the same and perfect it,” Brown said.

According to Brown, the judges give each performed notes on their evaluations that she will use to prepare for the next stages of the competition.

They gave me they just little notes like, ‘You can have your tone better here,’” Brown said. “Most of mine were about performance more, like not moving as much because I was moving around a lot.”