Tracks of My Tears

On the Easter weekend we performed at the National Folk Festival in Canberra for our third consecutive year. As usual, we were street performers, singing for the crowds and the long queues, but this time we also did something a little different. This year we entered the festival competition! That meant we got to perform on stage indoors in front of hundreds of people! The theme was 'Motown' , we sang 'Tracks of My Tears', we dressed up and moved Motown-style... and guess what!...

...we made the finals! This was a huge thing for us as we were competing against professional musicians like Mal Webb, Kristina Olsen and Sally Dastey! We totally didn't expect to make the finals. In fact, some choir members (including our director, Kate) left the festival and returned home to the Mountains before we found out who the finalists actually were! Fortunately for the rest of us, Kate returned to Canberra by plane to take part in the finals! Obviously, she was excited and thought it an experience that simply could not be missed.

We didn't win, but we had a wonderful time anyway. We achieved far more than we had expected to. Big thanks to Kate for flying back down, to Sigh for teaching us the choreography and to Trish for making all the neckties, headbands and chokers! Well done Crowd Around!

Little Ray of Sunshine

On December 10th we sang at a benefit concert for a little local girl who is sick in hospital with a brain tumour. We managed to raise almost $2000 for the girl's family. Many thanks to all the performers who participated in the concert and to the Mid-Mountain's community for your generous donations. Thanks also to Mountains Outreach Community Service for supporting the event.

Gracie, you are in our thoughts and prayers. We are singing for you. Be strong sweetheart.

Here is Grace a year ago (wearing pink) at playgroup.

Winter Magic

Recently we performed at the Winter Magic Festival in Katoomba. It was, as usual, freeeezing! We did a performance during the day at St Hilda's Church and a performance on the balcony of the Carrington Hotel during the evening. We sang a few songs just before the fireworks display. Hearing the audience singing along to "Don't Dream It's Over" was a highlight. Being the act before the fireworks was exciting. Here are a couple of photos of us singing on the balcony.

Choir Reunion

On May the 30th we had a reunion for choir members past and present. It was nice to catch up with people, to sing some old songs and to look at some of our old photos. Thanks again to Ian for organising it!

Crowd Around Reunion

We are having a reunion at the Wentworth Falls School of Arts on Saturday the 30th of May between 2 and 7pm.  All past and present members of our choir are invited to attend.  Our choir has existed now for 16 years and has had 100s of members come and go (and some have even stayed) in that time.  Many thanks to Ian Lett for organising this event.  Hopefully there will be a good turn-out of people there.  It will be great to see some old friends again!

Below are some old photos of the choir.  We even used to have a uniform!

National Folk Festival

On the easter long weekend we performed at the National Folk Festival in Canberra.  Our performance on the Saturday was particularly enjoyable - we drew quite a large crowd and gained a few new fans from the Qi Gong massage tent nearby!  It was so great to have Kate there this year and so many choir members.

Rydal Retreat

In March we had our annual retreat at "Rydal Mount" conference centre in Rydal.  As usual we had our Italian food night on the Friday and our Indian curry night on the Saturday. We had our singing workshops with Kate on the Saturday and Sunday, some live music (by some choir members) on the Saturday night, we went on some nice walks and bike rides in the area, ate LOTS of food and drank just a little bit.  Our retreats are a great way of getting to know each other and of welcoming any new members.