Bee-Fest Saturday 29th July 2023

What a great day yesterday, the weather was glorious and the Sunflowers were out. It was Churchdown Male Voice Choir's privilege to support sunflowerssuicidesupport.org.uk/ 
Thank you to the Bubble Bee Pub and Michael Tuck Estate Agents.  

You can donate to Sunflowers here cafdonate.cafonline.org/12870#!/DonationDetails

​CHURCHDOWN MALE VOICE CHOIR – FALLEN OFF THE BACK OF A LORRY 
The last couple of months have seen some vastly different concerts. We sang in a pub courtyard
during a packed beer festival, letting some of our traditional pieces give way to crowd-participation
things like sea shanties and pirate songs, all of which went down a storm (so to speak). We then had
a traditional concert in Churchdown Methodist church, a venue with great acoustics and a very
appreciative audience, and which raised around £1000 for various outreach projects led by the
church; we’ve been asked back again, though with this year’s commitments already crammed in
we’ve offered to do a return in the New Year. We sang in the sunshine in the Churchdown Primary
School playground for the opening of their gardens. And we had a hugely successful event at
Warehouse 4 in Gloucester docklands, with a varied repertoire but one that emphatically appealed
to our wonderfully engaged audience – the standing ovation and cheering at the end made the
whole choir feel good. Our resident Welsh bard also regaled the audience with some of his terrific
poetry, which added real value to the evening; and we helped raise a staggering £1700 for the
Sunflower Suicide Support charity. To top off the season so far we sang, again in aid of Sunflowers,
on the back of a large lorry outside the Bumble Bee pub in Quedgeley. That’s the whole package for
me – fun with the boys, people loving our performances, and lots of money raised for charity –
what’s not to like about what we do?
There’s a few more concerts in the pipeline for the summer before we head off to the competition in
the Isle of Man in October; we’re already putting in the hours needed to make our offering
spectacular, including really beautiful renderings of “Sound of Silence” and “The Prayer” (in which I
sing Andrea Boccelli’s part and not Celine Dion’s, I’m glad to say).
New members seem to be joining us almost every week, which is great – if you’re interested get in
touch at www.churchdownmvc.org or just turn up at the CCA at 7.30PM on a Monday. We even
have Facebook and Instagram pages if you know how to use them!

Reverend Barry Taylor