Joyful singing at the Illawarra Folk Festival

Illawarra Union Singers joined with the Newcastle People’s Chorus, and the Sydney Trade Union Choir in an hour long concert of rousing and poignant songs at the Folk Festival. We had a full house and audience joined in some of the songs and cheered the rest.

We sang 3 songs each and then 4 all together. Of the joint songs, I conducted “4 Strong Women” (acknowledging the song’s author Maurie Mulheron who was in the audience), and “Coal Seam Gas” (which I arranged to go with words by Ainslie Lamb). They sounded great, and hearing Coal Seam Gas sung with 60 voices, and so well balanced across the parts – a total delight. I was pretty pumped!

Illawarra did themselves proud with our version of “Walk On”, dedicated to the indigenous people of the Illawarra, and also acknowledging John Littrich who was also in the audience. Our version of Eric Bogle’s “Singing the Spirit Home” was very beautiful, and our short rousing finale of “Mnogaja Ljeta” got everybody cheering.

Here we are in the grandstands rehearsing – all 3 choirs together. Sounded great!!

This is the third year I’ve been involved in this and I think the combined sound gets better every year. Maurie congratulated me on how good Illawarra sounded and has improved, which meant a lot to me. Thanks everybody for your continued hard work.