St Francis kids rock at music festival
News
A group of young rock musicians from St Francis School, Lockleys, played their biggest ‘gig’ yet during the Catholic Schools Music Festival where they were the only primary school band to take to the stage at the Adelaide Festival Centre.
Appearing in front of a crowd of approximately 2000 on the Wednesday night of the four-day festival, the pint-sized performers showed no signs of nerves and received loud applause as well as accolades from older students.
Kids at Work, which comprises six students from Years 5 and 6, came together in 2018 under the direction of Year 3 teacher and music lover Tim Dennis who works in collaboration with the school’s instrumental teachers.
Through Mr Dennis, the school has an 11-year history of rock bands with many band members having gone on to prominent roles as musicians around Adelaide.
Last year Kids at Work won the Year 4/5 section of the inaugural Nazareth Battle of the Bands with its performance of Sheppard’s Coming Home. The group continued its success this year by winning the Year 6/7 section with its rendition of the Ed Sheeran hit Castle on the Hill, the song it played at the Catholic Schools Music Festival.
Leading up to the festival the band practised one afternoon a week after school, with finger buns as their motivation, and put together a 40 minute bracket of songs which they performed in the foyer of the Festival Centre on the Thursday night of the music festival.
Mr Dennis said he had enjoyed “watching their enthusiasm and seeing their growth as musicians and their ability to play together as a group”.
Kids at Work performed at the Lockleys Football Club team presentation picnic day in September, which was a good warm up for its Festival Centre debut, and have also played at school events such as graduation and the annual Christmas party.
“In a world where we encourage students to be thriving people, capable learners and leaders of the world God desires, it is important that students have opportunities to pursue their interests and be able to develop their talents,” said school principal Rick Favilla.
Guitarists Lincoln and Zak said it felt “amazing” to perform in front of so many people and they enjoyed playing music with their friends.
Nathan, on drums, said he could hear lots of cheering after the guitar solo and when the guitarists went ‘back-to-back’.
Keyboard player Archie said the secondary school performers were looking at them back stage and saying how small they were. “They told us after that they were blown away by our performance,” he said.
Organisers said the annual festival was once again a great success.
Jump to next article
Comments
Show comments Hide comments