. "Tawa Goes to Town" 2010 - Rehearsal .

Practices for the Tawa Music Festival start about mid-June, 3 months before the big night itself. More than 350 primary school (years 5 & 6) and intermediate children practise together on Wednesday afternoons, the adult choir practises late Sunday afternoons, and Tawa College's Dawn Chorus on a Friday morning. Meanwhile primary, intermediate and college dancers all rehearse their routines separately.

On the Sunday afternoon before the concert, they all come together for the first time and go through the whole show in the college hall. A final dress rehearsal takes place in the Michael Fowler Centre on the morning of the actual concert. All in all, a huge amount of time and effort goes into bringing together a very successful production!

The photos below capture something of the Sunday afternoon rehearsal on 12 September, four days before "Tawa Goes to Town" 2010. The last row records chaos in the college carpark as hundreds of people all head home at the same time.