It is the annual Festival of Voices down here in Hobart; a wonderful event that fills our snowy city with song in all sorts of unexpected places. I say “snowy” – for the most part of this week, Mount Wellington has been snow capped and closed for cars and there has been snow down to the 300 metre level on some nights. It’s winter!
The Festival of Voices annually lifts the doom and gloom of winter as many choirs sing at events staged all over Hobart. Some friends of ours described arriving at the airport a few days ago, when a Flash Mob Choir suddenly started singing “Restless” while they were waiting for their baggage! Lovely, unexpected and wonderful!
Today, we took the Berwick Youth Choir on Louisa’s Walk. They had booked some weeks ago. The weather forecast for today looked dire and ranged from pouring with rain earlier on in the week, in the long range forecast, to gale force winds. We set off in a gale from our home in Blackmans Bay. Several other audience members had also booked on for the day and our numbers were up to 23 (just about as busy as we like to be).
The choir were already waiting for us under the Spanish Sweet Chestnut trees which stand in front of the Cascade Brewery. The other audience soon joined us and we were off. Somehow the wind just dropped, the rain kept away and for the most part it was bright and sunny. What a relief! We had a wonderful show. Even with such big, Summer numbers the whole group were absorbed into Louisa’s story. The children were young enough to involve and so they rang the bell and helped with the washing just as we always do when we have children on board.
As we were walking back up to the top of the Cascades, some of the choir fell into step with me. I asked them about all the different places they had performed during the Festival and then I asked them if they would like to do an impromptu performance for Louisa’s Walk? Yes, they could and they would!
After we came out of character and finished our performance, theirs began and they enchanted the remaining audience with their version of Botany Bay. Lovely! So special!
Botany Bay sung by the Berwick Youth Choir
