Teen songwriter seeks dancers for Oak Harbor Music Festival showcase

Genelia Lai is looking for about four backup dancers to join her Teen Talent Showcase set at the Oak Harbor Music Festival, where the 13-year-old plans to bring her original songs to the stage on Sunday, Sept. 6.

The showcase audition took place last month, and five teens were selected to perform at the 2026 festival, which runs Sept. 4-6 on SE Pioneer Way in Oak Harbor. The festival bills itself as a free end-of-summer event with three stages, more than 40 acts, arts and craft booths, food trucks, and beer and wine gardens. Funds raised at the festival support a scholarship for students interested in music.

Lai wants dancers with experience or at least interest in pop, hip-hop or K-pop, and she intends to choreograph the performance herself. She plans to perform four or five original songs, including Magnet, Trouble Like That, Sunshine and Sugar on My Lips, giving the showcase a songwriter’s edge rather than a simple cover set. The request also points to a larger question for Whidbey Island’s young performers: whether the island can keep enough rehearsal space, mentoring and stage time in place for teens who are ready to build real live shows close to home.

That infrastructure is already starting to form around Lai. Community members and students connected with Spark Movement Academy have reached out, and the academy has agreed to provide rehearsal space for Lai and her dancers. In a local arts scene where access to practice rooms can shape whether a young performer stays active, that kind of immediate response matters as much as the festival slot itself.

The teen showcase has become a recurring part of the festival’s youth pipeline. In 2024, it featured four Whidbey young musicians at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday at the Island Thrift Stage. Festival organizers have said the event’s music director keeps a database of more than 1,400 bands and artists interested in playing, but only about 30 slots can be filled each year, which makes the teen stage one of the few dependable openings for rising local talent. A 2024 Whidbey News-Times report said Island County residents ages 12 to 18 were eligible for auditions, and both solo acts and groups were welcome.

Lai has already performed in front of larger audiences. In February 2026, she sang the national anthem at the Bruce Lee USPS stamp unveiling ceremony, where invited guests included Shannon Lee, Sue Ann Kay and Mimi Gan, and American Legion Cathay Post 186 served as color guard. She also performed at the Nippon Kan Theatre in Seattle for the Bruce Lee stamp release event, adding public-stage experience to a summer audition that now has the attention of Oak Harbor’s festival crowd.