The city of Salisbury’s Cultural Action Plan steering committee has announced the 12 finalists for the “Salisbury’s Got Talent” finale competition to be held 4 p.m. Saturday at the F&M Trolley Barn, 125 E. Liberty Street.
A preliminary competition, featuring four performance categories ó music, dance, other talents and children, took place April 12 at City Park Center. Preliminary judges Melissa Alesi, Jason Diggs, Frank Goodnight, Nathan Harris, Justin Kamm, Chris Lunetta, Paul Moore, Eleanor Qadirah, Albert Stout and judge coordinator Bob Paolino determined the top three contestants in each category for a total of 12 finalists.
The top 12 finalists are:
Dance: Nadirah Dance, DFTR Dance Group and Wagon Wheel Cloggers;
Music: Pat Cohen (Mother Blues), Virginia and Melvin Rush and Alexis Greer;
Other: Porcelain on Stage (Tia Glass), Wanda Gaither and Robert Jones;
Children: Adam Broyles, Taylor Linker and Arisa McDonald.
The top 12 finalists will perform at the Salisbury’s Got Talent finale event for the top prize of $1,000. Winners will be announced Saturday evening and will be determined by a panel of celebrity judges that includes Len Clark of the Salisbury Post; Mark Zenow, talent manager and former manager for Hootie and the Blowfish; and Joey Popp, host of Healthwise on WTVI, local host of NPR’s Weekend Edition on WFAE-FM radio and graduate of Catawba College.
Emcees for the Saturday show will be David Fish and Bob Paolino. 
Members of the public may vote for their favorite contestant online at www.salisburync.gov/salisburysgottalent. Online voting will be used to determine a winner in the event that there is a tie breaker at the finale event.
Online voting will conclude at 5 p.m. Friday.
The top three overall contestants will receive $1,000, $500 and $250, respectively. For the children’s age group, the top three contestants will automatically receive $100, $75 and $50 consecutively, but are also eligible for the top overall prize money.
Preceding the finale event will be a performance at 2 p.m. by the Amadeus Youth Chorus, featuring selections from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. At 2:45 p.m, the Cultural Action Plan Steering Committee will present consultant Mary Berryman Agard, who will give a brief summary of the committee’s efforts over the past several months and engage the public in open dialogue.
There is no charge to attend or participate in any of these events. For more information, call Diana Moghrabi at 704-638-5240. You can also visit www. salisburync.gov/salisburysgottalent.