Wollongong Schools' Choral Festival

Pre festival organisation

Student participation fee

All schools will be charged a non-refundable participation fee of $10 per student to cover costs associated with the props and participation ribbon for the Wollongong Schools' Choral Festival. Schools will be required to indicate on their acceptance form the number of students in their item and will be debited through an 'interschool journal' at the beginning of term 2. Please ensure you have confirmed your choir numbers and received their $10 payment by Friday 16 May. All choir numbers need to be in before this date for organisational purposes and to allow for a long lead time for the purchase of props due to distribution issues.

Conductors meetings

There willl be two meetings scheduled in 2025 at dates and venues to be announced. They will run from 1:30 pm to approximately 3:30 pm.

Music

The 2025 repertoire may be downloaded from the 2025 Wollongong Schools' Choral Festival shared Google Drive and contain 9 songs in both unison and 2 part harmony. Please ensure that your choir is split evenly with strong singers in each part. We encourage you to download the music and familiarise yourself with it before attending the first meeting.

Individual item accompaniment or backing tracks

If you are using a piano accompanist for your item, please indicate this on form 1: item nomination. If you would like a piano accompanist to accompany your item, but do not have access to one, please email Lynda. She may also be able to organise a backing track fo your to practise with and play your item on your performance night.

If you are using a backing track/s please upload it to the 2025 Wollongong Schools' Choral Festival shared Google Drive by Friday 27 June.

locate your choir's folder with the '2025 music'
drag and drop a copy of your music out of the playlist and into this folder
it must only be saved as an mp3 file or wav file
please note that there should be no vocals on your backing track

'Student participation and publicity consent deed' and 'participation and publicity consent form'

All of your students are required to complete the 'student participation and publicity consent deed'. Print this form to distribute to students and retain all at your school.

Cluster rehearsals and performance nights

Schools may nominate a preferred date for their performance night and cluster day rehearsal and the Wollongong Schools' Choral Festival will do its utmost to accomodate your requests. The organisation of each night is determined by numbers and a balance of schools, ages and individual items. Please ensure that your choir has completed all unison and 2 part songs prior to the cluster rehearsal.

If your students have not learn a song by the cluster rehearsal date, it makes it extremely challenging for the mass choir conductor. Students should not bring their lyric booklets to the cluster rehearsals as this is far too distracting. The mass choir conductor will give them clues so they will not require their words.

Choir part allocation

Please ensure that you have split your choir evenly into 1sts and 2nds so that all performances are balanced in terms of sound and seating. If your choir has less than 30 students, please email Lynda as she may be able to allocate one part to your school. When rehearsing, please place your 1sts on the left hand side and your 2nds on the right hand side. This will become very important when your students perform their individual item on the individual item steps.

Individual item song selection

The time limit for individual items is approximately 5-6 minutes. This should be enough for two songs unless a medley is selected. Given that there are 5-6 schools performing per night, there may be more than one school that nominates a particular individual item. Therefore, the school who nominates an individual item first will have preference. All individual item choices are subject to approval depending on the number of schools chooisng the same items, and the content and context of the lyrics for the chosen songs. You will receive notification from the Wollongong Schools' Choral Festival committee once your songs have been approved.

A reminder to please remember that all songs need to reflect that fact that we have primary aged students so all lyrics and contexts should be appropriate. Please upload a copy of your lyrics into your schools' folder on the shared Google Drive so that they can be checked. If you are doing a medley, please include all lyrics. If you intend to change any lyrics that you think are inappropriate, please include them on the lyrics sheet that you send. Please fill in Form 3: Individual Item Nomination as soon as your decision has been made and you have sought approval from your principal.

Opportunities for soloists

There will be opportunities for soloists in some massed items. The solo sections will be made available in the 2025 music section of the shared Google Drive so that interested students can practice.

School photos

Every school will be required to supply 6-8 photos which will be used while students are walking from their seats to the individual item steps. These photos can be of your school participating in a range of ativities. Please upload them onto the shared Google Drive in jpg format only. If you have any further question, please email Val Burton on valerie.burton@det.nsw.edu.au

Official compere script and student compere

Please compose your official compere script and select your student compere and fill in Form 4: official compere script and child compere information by Friday 27 June. Further information can be found in the form link.

Official compere script about your school

This will be used while your individual choir is making its way to the individual item steps. This does not have to be specifically about your choir, it can be about your school, its location, any programs you have at your school etc. Some or all of this information will be used depending on how long it takes for your choir to get into their position.

Child compere

You will be required to choose a child compere to introduce your individual items. Please ensure that you do not repeat any information that has already been said by the official compere. This should be brief and succinct as your choir will be standing on stage, eager to sing.

Please select your child compere from your choir members and have them learn their script. Bring it to the Town Hall morning rehearsal so your child compere can have a chance to rehearse it on stage. You are not required to send this script to the committee.

Tickets

Tickets for all Wollongong Schools’ Choral Festival performances will be available (at a date TBA) through the IPAC Box Office (Ph. 02 4226 3366) or through their website.

Third party content attributions

No third party attributions

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