Choirs fine tune their voices for annual competition

Joining 22 school choirs from across the region, children will perform at the Marine Hall in the Last Choir Singing Regional Heats, to be held on March 14, 15 and 16.

Now in its fourth year, the competition has gone from strength to strength and has become an important diary event, not only for junior schools across the region but, also, for the Marine Hall itself.

Janet Heald, Events and Front of House Manager at the Marine Hall, remembers distinctly the day that she was approached by Anita Shaw, project manager of the Last Choir Singing. "My first thought", said Janet, "was how on earth are we going to do this? It would be a massive task to coordinate it safely, with 200-300 children performing at each heat, whilst allowing them to see as much of the show as possible. But, do it, we did! Working together, we came up with a format that, with a few tweaks and improvements, we still use four years later. We now use this same format for other school-related events, festivals, dance shows, and adult mass singing events. These are shows that, previously, we would have turned down. These shows bring many people from further afield into the town and into the Marine Hall."

Anita Shaw said: "This year, due to the growing popularity of the competition, there are seven heats at three different venues. Managing so many shows is no mean feat. We love coming to the Marine Hall.

Last year Shakespeare Primary School won the Last Choir Singing County Trophy. This year. Schools from Fleetwood, Blackpool, Lytham St Annes and Lancaster are among the schools taking part at the Marine Hall. Tickets can be booked on the Marine Hall website – www.marinehall.co.uk.