Picnic Concert - a great success

Always a keenly anticipated event, this year’s Picnic Concert took the whole experience to new levels of excitement. With generous sponsorship from Waitrose and some great raffle prizes provided by Clive Pedwell at Devon Classic Campers, the Original Surfboard Company and Sharon Davis from Interiors by Design, a wonderful evening of proper summer weather took great advantage of the wonderful, idyllic setting.
A fantastic range of music was on offer – as an audience member commented ‘something for literally everyone’. The evening opened with Year 11 band Freddie & the Foxes and continued with the Lower School Concert Band performing the feel-good Fun, fun, fun and Apache, before being joined by the Senior Band for a riotous romp through Danny Elfman’s iconic theme from The Simpsons. Senior Concert Band went on to play an eclectic set, ranging from Bollywood to the 1812 Overture –with Mr Craig clearly relishing the cannon part in this, his last Picnic Concert with us.
The Senior Percussion Ensemble thrilled the audience with their sheer verve and energy and the players were then joined by other percussionists and Music staff for a surprise samba item, led by Joshua Bawden, in Mr Craig’s honour.
Big Band acquitted itself with style, as ever, and another varied set included a number by Stevie Wonder (who needs Glasto?) as well as more classic big band fare, such as Moonlight Serenade. Throughout the set, there were ample opportunities for the players to show off their solo playing skills.
Another innovation for 2010 was the inclusion of Year 7 & 8 boyband, BVox, who enchanted and enthused the audience with their renditions of Tears in Heaven, the anthemic Rule the World by Take That and Michael Jackson’s Man in the Mirror, in which they were backed by GF9.
Girlforce9 are now synonymous for many with the Picnic Concert, but this year held several surprises – not least in the staging of their set, which included numbers by Madonna, the B52’s, Jools Holland, Eurythmics and 80s girlband, Bananarama. Backed by a 15 piece professional band, the girls have never sung better and looked and sounded fantastic.
Presenters Kate Trewhella and John Young paid tributes on everyone’s behalf to musical friends who are now retiring – Pat Pearce - and leaving us – Paul Owen, Phil Craig and our Year 11 and Upper 6th musicians, as well as thanking parents for many years of unstinting support. They also rallied the audience to dig deep for the raffle, which eventually raised over £1000 for Look, a charity that supports families and carers of children with visual impairment.  This year’s event attracted the largest audience in the history of the Picnic Concert – some 500 people - and the spectacle of that alone was fantastic, as can be seen from the photos. Some of these images were taken by parent, Steve Olive, and there are 100s more wonderful pictures of both audience and performers, which really capture the festival atmosphere on the night. These can be viewed on his website www.steveolive.co.uk/wellington_summer_concert and Steve is happy to take any orders from parents.
Many thanks to everyone who attended for your support of the department’s move to the Corner Building Music School in September – an exciting new chapter for Wellington Music and the concert proceeds will allow us to further enhance music facilities for all pupils.