Young Voices 2018!

For the third year in a row, Park Grove Academy has enjoyed being part of the fantastic Young Voices Choir at Sheffield arena. It is such a brilliant day for everybody involved…and here is a superb, descriptive report of the day by choir members Annabelle and Dinithi:

Young Voices
On the 17th of January 2018 Young Voices commenced. It was the 23rd year of Young Voices and we were hopping around in our seats with excitement.

As the morning grew old, we travelled towards the fabulous Haxby Road Primary. We were skidding around on the roads as we fizzed with excitement. Upon arrival, we were treated with warm smiles and lots of (actual) stairs. After trekking up what seemed like millions of stairs we arrived at Haxby Road’s gym hall to rehearse the snazzy songs and darling dance moves. After an hour and seventeen minutes of rehearsing, we went for a short break and hopped onto the coach onto the motorway to… SHEFFIELD ARENA! We then took a quick break at a rest station and flooded the tables of Starbucks (no seat was left unseated!) People at starbucks were intensely looking at the two schools which had flooded the chill area in wonder. After our well deserved lunch break, we hopped back onto the coach and we were on the road again, heading towards the amazing… SHEFFIELD ARENA!  After a long drive of singing and chanting we finally arrived at the gigantic giant that was… SHEFFIELD ARENA!

After being instructed where to park and actually parking we hopped off the coach and the Park Grove’s Young Voices assembled! Many schools were frantically traveling towards their entrance and  Park Grove politely slipped past  the flow of the crowd. All the schools huddled into the spacious arena and we quietly took our seats and started chatting away with excitement. We changed into our t-shirts as the crowd was hushed by the booming voice that was coming from Craig – the musical composer and the person who wrote one of our favourite songs, ‘Singing Together’. We went quiet. After a short introduction to the young voices team, Dave the musical conductor, who has been all around the world with his skills, introduced himself and helped us with our rehearsal. After a long afternoon of rehearsing and perfecting our technique in singing and dancing, we collapsed in our seats and feasted on our dinners before the performance. We watched as the many parents piled into the thousands of seats laid out for them. It was fun playing a game of ‘spot the parent’ – but the majority of us lost!

Then the concert started. Many lights flashed and danced and the Urban Strides put on an incredible introductory performance. We all sang with our hearts and voices as one amazing choir many special guests were kind enough to sing with us those: Alfie Sheard, Natalie Williams and the incredible acapella group the Magnets! Our voices echoed through SHEFFIELD ARENA! We sang many songs that are unforgettable to the 2018 Young Voices choir and we won’t hesitate no more to say that! Multi coloured lights flashed and lit up the hall, that night we were ‘all singing together’. We were all in this together to make a wonderful performance, you could say, we were all ‘in the band’! We all knew that we could be ‘extraordinary’, singing many songs such as Extraordinary, Singing Together, I’m Yours (chorus only) and You’re in the Band.

As the concert finished we were all exhausted. All the children in the different blocks filed out of the arena. 105, 210, 207, 211 and finally our block 209. As we wove our way in and out of schools and through the congested green doors, we all piled onto the coach and set of for home. It was an extraordinary day and one we will never forget!

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