Yate Rocks 2025: Singing Through Sunshine and Showers
With all the wonderful hot weather we have been enjoying recently, we were rather dismayed when the heavens opened at lunchtime on Sunday 22nd June, just ahead of our young choir, Junior FR performance at the annual Yate Rocks extravaganza. Back for its 19th year, this fun-filled two-day event, organised by Yate Town Council, in South Gloucestershire, was as lively as ever and it’s certainly something we look forward to being part of every year.
Junior FR sheltered among the trees for their warm-up and although a little soggy by the time they took to the stage, the heavy showers passed and the sun was once again trying its best to shine. Junior FR gave wonderful performances of Avicii’s “Wake Me Up”, “Wellerman”, the popular sea‑shanty, “This Is Me” from The Greatest Showman, Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”, and “Skin” by Rag’n’Bone Man.
They had spent time at their recent rehearsal thinking and talking about what they love about Junior FR and enjoying performing was one of the many reasons given. And we could definitely see it, with a great show which included some beautiful solos from some of the girls. This is all testimony to the hard work they put in and to the inspirational support from Wendy Howse, the Junior FR and Fascinating Rhythm Musical Director, as well as the various helpers who support the rehearsals each week.
Wendy said:
“It was an absolute honour and privilege to be the MD of both JuniorFR and Fascinating Rhythm this year, starting with my wonderful Junior FR who got soaked while we were warming up! But this didn’t deter them, as all they wanted was to enjoy performing — which they did, just brilliantly!”
Raysfield School choir and Woodlands Primary School choir were also fantastic, and we loved hearing all 3 choirs join together as a finale for the junior section singing “A Million Years” — such a lovely song, from The Greatest Showman.
The programme continued and we enjoyed Bromley Heath Community Choir and Black Sheep Harmony and then it was our turn to take the stage and thankfully by this time, the weather was more settled, our audience were being thoroughly entertained, and burgers and ice cream were flowing!
We started our performance in a collaboration with our friends from Black Sheep Harmony, singing “Happy Together” which we loved. Their MD, Pete Nugent, directed us and his face was a picture — he just didn’t stop grinning from ear‑to‑ear!
Then it was our turn, and we wanted to take the audience on journey that showed both our skill as an A Cappella close harmony group, but also the joy of singing together. We started off with one of our newer songs, The Beatles’ “Get by with a Little Help from My Friends” which was well‑received. Then we continued, singing a range of songs from our repertoire, including “Hallelujah”, “Feelin’ Good” and our newest song, Keane’s “Somewhere Only We Know”. We ended our set with one of our fun favourites “We Go Together” from Grease!
We must recognise that Yate Town Council do a great job every year with this wonderful two‑day outdoor event: we always look forward to singing and this year was no exception, with the added bonus of at least four of our newbies able to join us on stage on this occasion. It was a wonderful experience for them, singing outside to a large audience, from the side of a large truck.
Our MD Wendy said:
“After the event I was thrilled to share some wonderful feedback about the quality of our performance and sound, with some audience members moved to tears during our performance of ‘Hallelujah’! We must recognise and thank the sound engineers who did a marvellous job, projecting our voices with their fantastic sound system, which worked brilliantly outdoors, so despite us being A Cappella, it sounded amazing! It was such a glorious, enjoyable day of singing.”
We were then entertained by the huge Rock Choir who sounded fantastic and most impressive of all, as a grand finale, all four choirs sang a wonderful rendition of the popular Keane song, “Somewhere Only We Know”, giving us a chance to sing it again!
What a marvellous afternoon of song — and we can’t wait to celebrate 20 years of Yate Rocks in 2026 with what I’m sure will be an extra‑special event!