Merritt’s most musical family once again wowed the judges at the Kamloops Festival of the Performing Arts this year.

Siblings Cameron, 16, Juliana, 12, and Brooklynn Snee, nine, came away with top-three finishes from all of the combined eight categories they entered.

All three singers said their favourite category is musical theatre.

The sisters took first place for their performance of the duet What Is This Feeling from the musical Wicked.

They said they were inspired after watching the play live.

“I think we felt the most confident with that song because before we even started practising for the festival we were already singing that song because we loved it so much, so we already had it down,” Juliana said.

Cameron had considerably less practice on his German art song entry. Because of a delay in getting the music, he couldn’t practice singing the song until about two weeks before the festival. In the meantime, he learned the pronunciation of the words to the song through a YouTube video.

After each performance, the adjudicator gave each performer feedback on one well-done aspect of the performance and one thing that could be improved.

That way, the festival is a great learning experience for the siblings, they said.

They said learning how to improve their performances and being inspired by the thousands of other performers who travel from around the performance to take part in the festival are the best parts of the event.

“When the adjudicator talks to other people you can also get information to help you,” Juliana said.

“[It] gives a purpose to practising,” Cameron said.

Between 65 and 80 people are in the theatre to watch a performance at any given time, the siblings’ mother, Dr. Carrie-Lynn Snee, said.

Having the festival to work toward also keeps the singers accountable for their progress, which was a particular challenge this year as their teacher is battling cancer.

Instead of their usual weekly practices, they could only practise once a month.

“It was a bit hard because we weren’t able to do a lot of practising with our teacher, but we managed,” Cameron said.

Between performances, the Snees stopped by the hospital in Kamloops to visit their teacher.

“I was proud of them. They worked really hard and tried to make their teacher proud,” their mother said.

The festival began on Feb. 22 and runs until March 15 at the Sagebrush Theatre in Kamloops. It covers a wide range of arts disciplines including dance, poetry, guitar, piano and choral.