Historical Woodstock event inspires Kingsmead College’s Kingstock
Kingsmead College had over 900 people attending the Kingstock event where all musical offerings in the school were showcased.
With a generous music offering, Kingsmead College in Rosebank celebrated Kingstock through a music festival. Over 600 of the 900 learners at Kingsmead performed at the festival on May 13. Kingstock organiser Rizwana Bawa said they (parent-teacher association) started planning for the event in November last year and it was a volunteer-led event by parents who volunteered to put together the décor, run stalls, work on ticketing and the music department, which also plays a huge role.
“We just thought that post-Covid-19, it would be wonderful to have everyone sitting outdoors in a music festival type of environment. The event mimics Woodstock and our name lent itself very well to Woodstock and then it became Kingstock,” said Bawa.
Woodstock was a three-day outdoor music festival in New York held to promote a message of peace and unity in 1969.
Kingsmead College executive head Lisa Palmer said the event aimed to bring communities together while showcasing all the music offerings in the school. She shared that the décor was the 60s with lots of bright neon colours.
Director of arts and music, as well as choir conductor of senior school, Elsabè Fourie said the event, in its second year, was also a fundraiser for various projects at the school. All the school’s musicians from grades 1–12, including marimba and jazz, orchestra, string ensemble, glee group and choir performed. Fourie also acknowledged with gratitude the professional musicians on the stage on the day.
Fourie said, “Tonight particularly, unlike last year, we’re going to bring the junior and senior school choirs together for the very last performance with the senior school orchestra for a mass item which is the song we wrote for this year’s 90th birthday. We wrote it for a major production in the first term, which is called Custodians of Courage.
“A colleague of mine and her husband wrote the words and I wrote the music. This year being our school’s 90th birthday, we chose the theme of courage which is an important core value of Kingsmead. So we decided to adopt this theme throughout the year in all the events we do.”
Head of the jazz band Onthatile Sennelo said they had been learning the songs they performed on the day since last year. Head of glee Keitumetse Makhanya said the festival was all about encouraging sisterhood. Head of choir Mbali Ndlela said working with 90 people was quite challenging but was also a learning experience for the choir.
Related articles:
