Friday Night Fever Relief

Cabin Fever Dance Brings Life to a Derwent Friday Night

Emily Mailhot Reporter – Vegreville News Advertiser

The evening of Friday, February 22, the Derwent Agricultural Society killed some cabin fever with a dance at the Derwent Community Centre.

This event was the second annual Cabin Fever dance, and the third of what the Agricultural Society hopes to be many such events, catered to the local crowd who love to dance. “A lot of the people who come out to this go to the jamborees throughout the area. It’s a good crowd who love to be here,” said organizer Debbie Schafers.

Schafers also shared that since the new board was elected to the Agricultural Society executive, they have been focused on breathing life back into the hamlet of Derwent with community events.

“We hadn’t held a dance in the community for ten years (before the first event),” said Schafers, “And a bunch of us love to dance. So, one day we were sitting around a table and decided to put on a dance in the middle of winter.”

President of the Agricultural Society Kevin Onysyk shared that throughout the year, the Derwent Agricultural Society are by no means idle; they run the hall, arena, and curling rink, as well as annual events Santa’s sleigh ride, Christmas market, Canada Day, and Farmers Day throughout the year. Their harvest dance was also a huge success.

Though struggling with the local forecast like many other events in recent weeks, the event saw a three-generational crowd of energetic dancers who enjoyed the music and dancing way into the night, jittering away any traces of February cabin fever. Grandparents dancing with their grandkids, younger adults arriving for a fun night out together, and a few guests who came just to watch the experienced dancers boogie around the floor.

The band who was hired for Friday night’s event was the Satellites from Villenueve, a three-generational eight-piece family band who play all kinds of music, except for rap. They were attracted to the Derwent event by personal connections to Debbie Schafers, but said that it was a great crowd, and they would definitely come into Derwent again.

Starting out as a duo of two cousins, the Satellites’ band grew as children and then grandchildren were allowed into the band, resulting in its current members. Stories that the band leader (and grandfather) shared helped to paint a picture of how the band developed, starting from when, as a young man, he learned to play the saxophone in order to secure more wedding gigs for himself and his bandmate.

Since then, they have enjoyed many community events throughout Western Canada.

Many Agricultural Society volunteers helped out throughout the event, from selling 50/50 tickets to setting up the hall or manning the bar, and the Derwent Fire Department volunteered as security.