Some of us have been with the choir for many years and others have only joined recently. No matter how long we’ve been members the anticipation builds as we gather in the car park. After a month of sun and heat on a bank holiday weekend the weather has broken. Yet it’s still quite warm and it’s not actually raining. The temperature is in fact just right for what we’re about to do.
‘I’m feeling curiously nervous,’ says one of our members.’
‘A few nerves can be useful,’ I reply, ‘as long as you don’t let them get to you.’
And so they are. A satisfying warm-up calms them and we’re soon in the church where we’re delighted to find a decent- sized audience.
Chorlton Arts Festival is a wondrous event. This year it lasted form 16 – 24 May, with a pre-festival event on 6 May, and took place in variety of venues throughout Chorlton.
Many of the events are free of charge though some you need to book for and you can donate to the festival at any event if you wish. This includes some fascinating ones like the group on just before us - Sign Me Happy offered a group of primary school children who signed (British Sign language) to music.
The festival has sponsors and patrons but is entirely run by volunteers.
So we were delighted to return to a venue with which we’ve become familiar: St Ninian’s Church at 4 pm on Saturday 24 May.
Our audience is a mixture of friends of the choir, friends of the festival and locals curious about who we are and what we do.
Our performance lasts one hour. We offer most of our current repertoire, including some news songs, ones that speak of peace and hope, special arrangements of popular songs and some old favourites. Some contain parts that some of us find tricky but with the care of other choir members, our warm-hearted audience and our supportive musical director we sail through them.
We go home yet again glad that we came. What a nice way to spend an afternoon on a disappointing bank holiday weekend.
