The sun has definitely got it’s hat on and we have been out to play! We started our summer ‘season’ with our Shine a Light concert at Ottery St Mary Parish Church which was raising funds for their Connect-Enhance-Engage project to protect and enhance the fabric of the building. This was a great first outing for our new set list and we raised £650 to go towards the work needed. If anyone would like to contribute to the project, you can find details here https://ottervalechurches.org/churches/ottery-st-mary-church/cee-project/

Next up was Big Blast – our annual joint concert with Lympstone Band at Sidwell Street Methodist Church, again raising funds for the Church building. This was our third year of collaborating with the band and each year it just gets bigger and better. We raised the roof with our finale number, Holding Out for a Hero, and can’t wait to perform with them again. You can find photos and videos of the night on our gallery pages, but here are a selection to give you a flavour.

June then brought two very different events for us! The first was Music and Magic at Mutley Baptist Church which was a combined concert and magic show raising money for St Luke’s Hospice in Plymouth. We were delighted to be joined by Nick Lear, who is not only the minister at the Church, but also a fantastic magician who kept the audience guessing with his fabulous magic act. You can find a few videos on our Facebook page, but here are a couple of photos of the night.

We then had a combined social/fundraiser at the end of June which was raising money for Children’s Hospice South West, our featured charity this year. We held a Mad Hatters Tea Party and were joined by the fabulous Judi Spiers as the Queen of Hearts and her long time friend and co-host, Gus Honeybun as the White Rabbit! Choir members outdid themselves with the baking and we had a veritable feast, followed by a good sing in the beautiful sunshine and raised over £1,300 in the process! Gus and Judi are working in partnership with Children’s Hospice South West this year so expect to see them pop up at various other events.

Bringing us right up to date is Exmouth Festival – we performed there on Saturday 12th July and having nearly been washed away by the rain last year, we were very grateful for the sunshine this year, albeit slightly warm! We always love Exmouth Festival and have performed there for many years, and probably will do for many more to come! We never know quite what to expect, but always have a good time.