Somerset Festival for Young Performers

Once again this year we were blessed with wonderful weather for the 2019 edition of the Somerset Festival for Young Performers. Families and competitors were able to enjoy wandering the College grounds between sessions and a bite to eat at the Clef Café.

Every year we rely heavily on our student volunteers to make the Festival run smoothly and efficiently. Over 70 students spent one or two days working at the Festival. This is even more impressive when we acknowledge most of these have been heavily involved in the Gold Coast Eisteddfod during the past few weeks. Thank you all for a job very well done.

Congratulations to the student performers who challenged themselves to perform on the two days. The inclusion of Dance to the programme this year was to my mind a great success and these sections are sure to grow in the coming years! We hope you enjoyed the challenge and felt a sense of achievement one each performance concluded. Thank you for sharing with us.

We also thank the Music and Speech and Drama teachers of the Gold Coast who nominated their students. This support makes the Festival possible.

An event such as The Somerset Festival for Young Performers does not just happen. Many hours of planning and preparation are involved.

I extend our thanks to the Festival Programme Director, Mrs Helen Little who works tirelessly each year to put the programme together – never an easy task considering the cast array of sections and students to be co-ordinated. Similarly I thank Mrs Sue Roberts for untiring work in organising the student volunteers and the music collection and distribution. Thank you also to the Events and Logistics Teams for setting and resetting the venues.

Similarly I thank all members of the organising committee who have worked to ensure the smooth running of the Festival again this year.

A Festival such as this would not be possible without our Adjudicators who undertake the enviable, but rewarding at the same time, task of responding with such encouragement and positivity to all the competitors.

We look forward to August 2020 and the next SFYP.