GOLD! GOLD! GOLD! to Australia

Apologies to the late, great Norman May who made this catch cry famous, but it is exactly what has happened at the Golden Gate Festival  in San Francisco.

Young Adelaide Voices won first place Gold in all three categories of competition - Folk, Historic and Contemporary sections of the Youth Choirs.

Our scores were
Contemporary Section 92 points - Towards Infinity and Currawong Dreaming
Historic 94 points - Elle Grillo and Cantique de Jean Racine
Folk 96 points - Ergen Deda and Ngana

We will be given more feedback once the Judges notes are passed onto us, but needless to say - there was massive excitement when the results were announced.

But we have jumped ahead of ourselves in the discussion of the tour! On Thursday, we had a morning rehearsal with the Massed Choirs, a very quick lunch break, followed by a quick rehearsal together prior to the Contemporary Competition. This competition was entered by 9 Choirs - sadly, The Youth Choir Kivi from Lithuania had been delayed for four days in Cincinnati due to a flight cancellation and missed most of the opportunities to compete.

The Church was full of anticipation as we were to perform in the very middle of all the Choirs - fortunately there were none of the staging issues we experienced in the Folk and Historic sections - in fact - they had taped a sign over the lights switch - do NOT turn off!

The Kinder and Jugendsingeakademie from Graz Austria performed their two pieces from the World Choir Games and had clearly improved. The Chamber Singers of Fairfield County Children's Choir (who we sang to in Connecticut waaay back when!) had also been impressed by us to really have improved their overall performance (their words, not ours)

Our performance was clearly solid and beautifully executed. The video will make its way to our Facebook page soon.

After the competition, the host families gathered everyone up for a feed and a rest, before heading out to our Spotlight Concert n Lafeyette. This area is very similar to Stirling in the Adelaide Hills - and about 15 minutes from the other areas. Although the attendance was quite low and the venue had a "hard" acoustic the performance was enjoyed by all. We performed with the Beijing Rainbow Art Performance Troupe in their glorious costumes and the Ancora Choir from the Piedmont East Bay Children's Choir followed us. They did some beautiful songs including a "standard" for their "retiring members". There were tears everywhere as this was the last time these choristers would sing together in this group - even "alumni" mothers were crying as they had also sung the song (sorry, forgot the name) as a group for the last time when they were in Ancora - a kind of tradition! They held it together for the finish and received a glorious ovation!

Friday was, as usual, a rehearsal for the massed Choirs, but shortened to make the winners announcements. The rest you know, and Christie was clearly overwhelmed with the results - in a very good way. The words "Did we just win three gold? That it just silly!" will need to be told many times as we reflect on the achievement!

Following the announcements the entire entourage (all choirs) walked to the BART (local rail system) to be taken downtown for a cruise on San Francisco harbour. Highlights (for me) were just sitting quietly watching Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge go by, whilst reflecting on the achievements. For many of the Choristers, the opportunity to stand at the front of the boat, being wind swept and rocking and rolling (it was quite rough) and having water splash over them as the boat pitched into waves was nearly a tour highlight! I asked one of the staff how he rated this trip for "roughness" and he said about 7 out of 10. Rest assured - it was a HUGE boat so it was really safe, but interesting to know how rough it can get! We made it under the Golden Gate Bridge and turned for home. As can happen in San Francisco - every other day has been glorious sunshine, but this day was foggy and a little cool, but hey - we got the full San Francisco experience!!!

After our cruise, many choristers went home with host families. A small group of 14 ventured off to a Major League Baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the Houston Oilers. I am pretty confident that everyone enjoyed the experience, and loved the fireworks after the game.

It is now 2.15pm on a glorious Saturday afternoon, July 14th - we have had morning stage rehearsals for the massed choir and stage rehearsals for our performance in the Grand Finale Closing Concert as winners of our competitions. The mood of the choir is buoyant, not only in anticipation of the Concert tonight, but the party after - the decision has been made to dress up, have fun and celebrate our achievments!!