It was like the plot of Slumdog Millionaire.
Huddled over a screen, answering a series of questions testing knowledge, for one big, glorious payout.
Yet this didn’t play out in the slums of India on a national game show. This played out in the living rooms of people living in the not-at-all-slummy Telkwa.
The contest was SiriusXM’s Face the Music, a music trivia game. The payout was a live concert for the community featuring The Trews and the Sam Roberts Band.
Vicky Rokstad, who works at the Village of Telkwa, took the lead in banding together a group of Telkwonians who managed to win the contest on the community’s behalf.
“I thought ‘hmm, we could win that,’” said Rokstad. “Telkwa can do anything.”
That notable moment of community pride set off a winning campaign.
She said she signed herself up for the contest first but had to add four more people when her team of one, ranked at 25th place, disappeared. Teams had to have a minimum of five people.
“So we advanced to second place and then I got a few more players in there that got pretty excited when we were in second place,” she said.
The game took a big amount of dedication for the time involved.
“I would play for a couple of hours at a time,” she said.
It was music trivia and while she didn’t outright claim to be an expert on musical knowledge, she has been a music lover for years.
“I have a head full of useless information,” she said. “I’ve always been a music lover so stuff just sticks in your head over the years and it comes in handy sometimes.”
Coming in handy is an understatement. The Trews and Sam Roberts Band are some of the biggest names in music today.
The only part of the whole thing that isn’t entirely as they pictured is the venue. Instead of Telkwa, the bands will be performing in Smithers at the Fall Fair Grounds.
“They had I guess some rules about your venue, your parking, that kind of thing,” she said. “We wanted to have it at the Telkwa barbecue grounds but it just wasn’t an adequate facility for something this big.”
She added that one of the first questions they were asked after the win is if they could accommodate a security detail of around 50 people.
Even though the concert is taking place in Smithers, everyone in Telkwa is still thrilled with the upcoming show.
“It’s such a great thing for Telkwa and for everybody around here. We don’t often get these kinds of concerts. We’re very excited,” said Rokstad.
Rokstad, in addition to being part of the winning team, was also the third top-scoring person in Canada.
She said a person named Ryan in Sault Ste. Marie eventually beat her out and then someone from Vernon came out of nowhere near the end to unseat first place from both of them.
Yet it’s not about the score, it’s about doing something for your community.
“I love Telkwa and I love the people here. It was just such a nice thing to try to do for the people because we deserve it. It was really, really a nice feeling when we won this for Telkwa.”