Chorus Convention :: Day Two

We woke fairly early and got ready to go and see the opening of the Chorus competition.  Twenty-three choruses will be competing this year, so it will be interesting to see where we are placed.  Two years ago in Canberra we came twelfth, even though Vocal Vibes was only three years old at the time (compared to 25 years for some of the other choruses) and it was our first ever competition.

Director Lorraine, Tamara, Sam & Bridget

Di & Cathy - having fun!

After viewing the first few choruses, we headed back to the apartment to start getting ourselves ready for our performance.  We were the 20th chorus out of 23, so we were not going to be on stage until about 4:20pm.

Hair & make-up time!

Awfully overdone, but required for stage.

Then, we gathered in the hotel foyer at 3:30 for the bus to take us to the auditorium.


Last minute adjustments

Kerrie, Debbie, Alison & Margot who together make up our Platinum Quartet

Vicki, Faye, Lara & Claire

Then we were on the bus and arriving at the auditorium, off the bus and backstage having our final rehearsal before all of a sudden it was our time to line up to go on stage.  Then, two years of work culminated in a six minute performance - firstly "At Last" and then a medley of "Steppin' Out" and "I Can't Give You Anything But Love", which resulted in a resounding applause from the audience.  Then we posed for our professional stage photo ...

Finally, we made our way off stage and back into the audience to watch the last three choruses, after which there was a few speeches, general awards presented and some other performances from prospective choruses (new ones which are not registered yet with Sweet Adelines International).

 

Then we returned to the hotel and gathered in the Director's apartment to hear the results.  We came 10th!!  This is a fantastic result, especially when we know that most of the nine choruses ahead of us are very VERY good!!  Also, so are a few that came after us.  We were all very excited and overjoyed by the result, especially Lorraine our Director, who will be retiring after this Convention.

 

After lots of hugs and kisses, phone calls home, champagne and celebrations, we returned to our own apartments to change and head off to the auditorium again for the big party.  Such a great time, with hundreds of women gathered to celebrate, sing and generally have fun until all hours of the morning.

 

  

At about 2am we wondered back to our hotel (about 15 minutes walk) and fell into bed.  What a wonderfully exciting day!