Q. Why don’t you have the Festival in School time?

A. There are a couple of reasons for holding it on a weekend.

Firstly,  parents are able to attend and see their own children  perform and  also listen to other choirs.  This all happens in a very short period of about one and a half  hours,  not half a day.

Secondly,  costs.  The need  for  a bus,  which could be a cost to the parents. The cost to the school to have a replacement teacher  take the classes missed by the regular music teacher. That cost can be huge!

So weekends maybe don’t look so good at first glance, but, as you can see, they are much more beneficial to all parties concerned.

(The second comment made  with regard to costs came from a  Choral Director who was in our recent Festival and spoke of her  experience).

I hope this answers your question.

Q.I have only one choir in my primary school covering  grades 3  to 7 ,  and I’m unsure which category to go in. Can you help??

A. We would suggest you go into the Senior Primary as that would be the best for your situation.

Q.I only have a very small choir. Does this matter?

A. No, not at all. The important thing is that those students get to see and hear other choirs and can learn for the experience. Remember,  it’s not a competition.

The assessor will be listening to the quality of the performance, not looking at how many are in the choir.

So just go for it!

Q. I don’t have the luxury of an accompanist and have to use cd backing for outside performances. Can I use a cd player at the Festival?

A. Yes, you can. We aim to make this as easy as possible for you.  The important thing  is to be able to perform and also hear other musicians. This can only

develop your ensembles.

If you are happy to use your own cd player you’re welcome to bring it along, if that’s what the students are familiar with and it makes them feel comfortable

in their performance, then use it.

While the house p.a. is there,  hearing  the backing  and getting the balance can be a daunting thing  in new surroundings. It’s your choice.

Just let us know on the entry form so we are prepared on the day.

Q. I have been to other performances and my choir was in the warm up room and did not hear any other choirs.

A. That’s a shame.  Right from the Festival’s  inception we have  sessions or clusters of 4 to 5 choirs who are  all seated in the  Auditorium for the whole session.

This means that they get to hear the other choirs, the comments from the Assessor on all the performances and get to cheer their choir captains when the presentations are made.

I might also mention that this is great for the parents as well to see and hear. These sessions are only approx. 1 hr and 15 min long .

We feel that this  format works  as a  major educational  benefit  to all  students, and importantly building your choral program.

Q. Are there any warm up rooms available?

A. Yes there are a number and on arrival at the Festival, our Festival guide will show you to your room and come and collect your choir just before the commencment of the session

Q. A number of  students in my choir play sport on Saturday.  How do you get on with this?

A.  A very common question.

If you go to the entry form you will see that we have a question which asks, “when you CANNOT PERFORM“.

This has worked  really well over the years, as we can then tailor the session times to suit everybody’s needs.  So it’s not an issue.