Flashback video as thousands don t-shirts for Adelaide ‘rite of passage’
Still own your coloured t-shirt from your primary school performance on the big stage? The 135th annual primary school music festival is happening in Adelaide. See a flashback video of Education Minister Lucy Hood appearing in 1998.
Families, friends and numerous supporters are being drawn to the city this week as almost 13,000 students from across South Australia take to the stage for the annual Primary Schools Music Festival.
The choral program, held in public primary schools across the state, has been running for 135 years and has touched the lives of huge numbers of South Australians.
“Many readers might have stood on a stage in a coloured T-shirt at the Festival Theatre, or at the Adelaide Town Hall, or even the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, and performed in a massed choir, or they could have been in the orchestra,” said Primary Schools Music Festival Manager Irene Solowij.
She described the festival as a “rite of passage” for students.
“Grandparents, great-grandparents and parents come into the audience now who once stood on the stage, watching a family member on the stage. It’s being part of history and something big and unique.”
This year’s theme, Wattle Sky, is a partially commissioned work written by Australian composer Joseph Twist, known for his work on Bluey, and poet Jodie O’Regan.
Education Minister Lucy Hood will be in the audience, this week sharing a video of her own appearance compering at the event in 1998.
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“A little 12-year-old country kid on the big stage in the city, singing her heart out with her friends,” Hood said.
“This week, the Festival of Music is back – and tomorrow night I’ll be there, this time as Education Minister, proudly watching primary school students from across our state shine.
“That’s what music and the arts can give young people: confidence, creativity and a place to find their voice.”
Video: Lucy Hood appearing at the festival in 1998.
Solowij said the festival’s commissioned music is what sets this year’s programme apart.
“Each year we try to incorporate different genres of music, and this one is quite different. It’s beautiful, and the troupe and the vision — it all just comes together,” she said.
“At the moment, they’re singing about a fire that sweeps through the land to germinate the wattle seeds.”
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A major inspiration for the 2026 festival is the Golden Wattle seeds sent into space in December 2020 aboard a SpaceX rocket to the International Space Station, where scientists studied how microgravity and space radiation affect plant growth.
The seeds were later distributed to more than 300 schools and community groups across Australia, including Glenelg Primary School, where they have sprouted into trees.
While the central performances are held at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre Arena, the Primary Schools Music Festival also extends to regional concerts in Renmark, the Murraylands and Mount Gambier.
Only three adults are on stage for the duration of the nightly performances — two choral conductors and one orchestra conductor.
“The adults are the support team behind the scenes for the kids,” Solowij said.
“Not everybody can be a performer or wants to be a performer, but with the arts in South Australia as strong as they are, we give students a wonderful opportunity.”
While the final rehearsals for the 2026 program are underway, festival staff are already preparing for next year.
“We’ve selected the music. We’ve got our permissions and copyrights. The commission work is done, and we’ve got some students rehearsing and learning the songs. They’ll be going into a recording studio in a few weeks to record the songs for our app … that teachers and the kids use to learn the repertoire for next year,” Solowij said.
The process also includes developing the 2027 songbook and its cover competition, where students can submit designs.
For Solowij, the Primary Schools Music Festival is something to be celebrated.
“There is nothing of this calibre anywhere else in Australia. The kids are the stars.”
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