For the third year running, St Mary's Church was filled with the sound of young voices as 170 children from local schools came together to celebrate singing at the Ross Primary Schools' Choir Festival. 

Amy Bebbington, a highly experienced vocal animateur and choral director who specialises in working with children, led the afternoon's activities on Wednesday, June 16th.  

Seven local schools were represented at the festival, together with The Voice Squad choir.  The afternoon began with a series of fun vocal warm-ups before the children got to work putting the finishing touches to a pre-prepared piece that they had been working on in their individual schools prior to the festival.  The combination of Amy's skilful teaching coupled with attentive participants meant that the children were also able to learn two completely new pieces before taking a well-earned break.

By 3.30pm, the church was filled with an expectant audience of parents, staff and invited guests. The individual school performances were something of a world tour of musical styles:  Bridstow opened the concert with 'Happy Day', a popular and infectious Gospel number.  Ashfield Park followed with a performance of 'Keep Holding On' – a pop ballad from the American musical comedy-drama 'Glee'. The choir from Lea sang a traditional English song, 'Scarborough Fair', followed by an inspirational performance of 'Believe', a lyrical pop ballad, from Brampton Abbotts.  St Weonards introduced a calypso theme with their performance of 'Little Bird' and Weston-under-Penyard sang 'Turn again, Whittington (Lord Mayor of London)', complete with chime bars and hand bells.  Whitchurch gave a very enthusiastic performance of 'Consider Yourself', from the musical 'Oliver' and The Voice Squad brought the individual performances to a close with an up-beat rendition of 'I can see clearly now'.

Amy then took the opportunity to teach the audience part of a song so that they would be able to sing with the children .

The choir began by singing 'Kelele', an African song about getting up and getting ready to go to work. This rousing and energetic song also involved an African drum called a djembe, played by local percussionist Kevin Bishop. This was followed by 'Scoo Be Doo' – a contrasting piece in a jazz-swing style. The choir was joined again by Kevin and stylishly underpinned by accompanist, Alan Durman.

The final piece of the afternoon was 'Refuge' by Howard Goodall, National Ambassador for Singing. The choir responded to Amy's every gesture and, combined with Alan's powerful yet sensitive accompaniment, it was an emotional performance.

Festival organisers, Andy Pullen and Fiona Turner from Bridstow Primary School, were delighted with the success of this year's festival. 'We have heard nothing but praise for this afternoon's festival," a delighted Fiona Turner said. "This Festival has become a tradition that Ross and all its schools should be proud of."

The Festival Committee would like to acknowledge the financial support received from Ross Town Council and from the national Sing Up scheme. The committee is also grateful for the use of St Mary's Church and facilities at the Royal Hotel and to the many volunteers who helped to make the Festival such a memorable experience.