Friday 28 November was an amazing day, the culmination of a year's effort by children around the world in learning the new Friday Afternoons songs with performances in school halls, churches, and in one case the Norway Centre for Rock Music.
Here are some of the highlights of this year's event:
Thursday 27th
Tom Service previewed the event in The Guardian calling it "a manifestly and undeniably Good Thing"
Queen's College Preparatory School were lucky enough to be invited onto BBC's In Tune programme to perform a couple of this year's songs live on the radio:
Amazingly-behaved pupils from Queen's College Prep School getting ready in the green room... @BBCInTune @FridayPMs pic.twitter.com/KLRuUMBhNa
— Ann Barkway (@annbarkway) November 27, 2014
Ready to go! Talking to @BBCInTune about @FridayPMs in a few minutes....switch your radio on! pic.twitter.com/nO6fbjfy9b
— Ann Barkway (@annbarkway) November 27, 2014
If you live in the UK, you can listen back to the whole programme via the BBC Iplayer.
Friday 28th
On the day itself we had choirs all over the UK and abroad taking part, with choirs in Greece, Norway, Brussels and the United States also involved.
Excitingly, several schools agreed to live-stream their events during the day, along with our own event taking place in Snape Maltings Concert Hall.
The first event to stream was the St Catherine's School in Athens; you can listen back to their performance here:
Sounding wonderful in Athens! #FridayPMs
— Friday Afternoons (@FridayPMs) November 28, 2014
Meanwhile at Snape, preparations were underway for the event in Snape Maltings Concert Hall:
800 children from 26 Suffolk schools descending on Snape for 12 noon #FridayPMs. Live at http://t.co/bNoWae5wvN pic.twitter.com/fwyeMMxBYY
— Friday Afternoons (@FridayPMs) November 28, 2014
One 7yo to another on way into Snape Maltings Concert Hall for #FridayPMs: "Ooh, we're going through the Artists' Entrance!" #FridayPMs
— Aldeburgh Music (@aldeburghmusic) November 28, 2014
Toi toi toi to all involved in @FridayPMs today! Happy memories from last year at Middle Temple Hall live stream :-)
— London Youth Choir (@LonYouthChoir) November 28, 2014
Just after 12.00pm our live stream here in Snape began
We're now live at Snape Maltings Concert Hall in Suffolk. Watch live at http://t.co/bNoWae5wvN #FridayPMs pic.twitter.com/Dz5MdARXsX
— Friday Afternoons (@FridayPMs) November 28, 2014
You can watch the Snape Maltings Concert Hall event back here:
Many thanks to everyone who took part in our #FridayPMs event today at Snape, great fun & wonderful singing all round pic.twitter.com/6E53MgmUox
— Friday Afternoons (@FridayPMs) November 28, 2014
Soon after things got underway here in Snape, it was the turn of Brussels to begin:
We are ready for #FridayPMs live stream! pic.twitter.com/e8QcFMyckg
— The British School (@BSB_Brussels) November 28, 2014
Watch the live stream of Brussels here:
Junior Singers 5&6 with The Ash Grove for #FridayPMs. pic.twitter.com/OeILrJdE6E
— The British School (@BSB_Brussels) November 28, 2014
A huge round of applause for our Junior Singers. It was huge fun. Thanks, #FridayPMs!
— The British School (@BSB_Brussels) November 28, 2014
With Brussels and Snape coming to a close, the next live stream from Queen's College Preparatory School in London was about to start:
Queen's College Preparatory School in London are starting their #FridayPMs live stream now - http://t.co/WWql345c0M pic.twitter.com/p7vFKiVliZ
— Friday Afternoons (@FridayPMs) November 28, 2014
Watch Queen's College live stream
Soon after Queen's College finished, St Wilfrids College in Wigan were getting ready to start their stream:
A VERY special message from Gwyneth To wish everyone GOOD LUCK #FridayPMs pic.twitter.com/EMdJP87GV8
— St Wilfrid's Music (@StWilfridsMusic) November 28, 2014
Emily, Emma and Jack explain why we are here #FridayPMs pic.twitter.com/G5ff9FLBce
— St Wilfrid's Music (@StWilfridsMusic) November 28, 2014
St Wilfrid's are live now! - http://t.co/WWql345c0M #FridayPMs pic.twitter.com/Sys04AIYPf
— Friday Afternoons (@FridayPMs) November 28, 2014
Watch St Wilfrid's performance:
Here we are during the live stream @FridayPMs #FridayPMs @gwynethherbert @aldeburghmusic pic.twitter.com/vfEZWmQiYR
— St Wilfrid's (@St_Wilfrids_CE) November 28, 2014
And we were lucky enough to have a performance from Norway, which you can see here:
Many thanks to all schools and groups who took part. We're delighted that this brand new set of songs was so enthusiastically taken on and has inspired so many of you to learn more about singing and to sing together which is what Friday Afternoons is all about. If you haven't yet taken part in Friday Afternoons, all the learning resources for this year's and last year's songs are still available on the site; whether or not you are able to take part in our annual day, the songs are fun way to get young people singing together.
Next year
2015 will see a whole new set of songs, and the return of our annual singing day in November. Look out for an announcement early in the new year - to keep updated on new developments, you can follow us on twitter or just sign up for an account on our website.
Until next year, keep on singing!
