Club News - Festival Statesmen - April 2016

It feels like it hasn’t been that long since the start of the year and yet so much has happened for the Festival Statesmen.  As we flagged in the December/January issue of In Harmony the first quarter of the year was mostly taken up with our very first show in the Adelaide Fringe Festival.

We’re incredibly happy to report that Festival Statesmen-Homecoming was a massive success and was more than we had ever hoped for. Half of our eight show run was a sell-out and we won a prestigious Fringe Award for being the audience favourite in a festival with more than 1200 acts! Many go their entire Fringe careers without seeing one so to win one in our first year in the festival was a huge honour.

 This was especially meaningful for us considering how much of Homecoming was sourced from the talent pool of our members. Homecoming included two original compositions from chorus members, an original script by Mitre Khammash, and five arrangements sourced from within the chorus, so to have it recognised like this is incredibly meaningful.
 
Not content with resting on our laurels though, we’ve launched right into our next project. Given the success of Homecoming and the number of new arrangements included we’re excited to announce we’re back in the studio recording our second album! At the moment we have plans to include our album launch in the Umbrella: Winter City Sounds festival in a few months, so keep an eye out for more news on that.
 
With Central Region competitions just around the corner, a video clip for our single Get Back to be filmed very soon, and Newcastle looming on the horizon, this is looking to be one of our most jam-packed years yet, but we can’t wait to see what it brings.

 
 
James Moffatt Committee member