In One Voice a hit
THE streets of Elsternwick were alive and buzzing on Sunday, with more than 5000 revellers enjoying the In One Voice festival, checking out the dozens of stalls, tucking into fabulous food and dancing along to a varied selection of live musical performances.
Returning after a 10-year hiatus, the event united the community in celebration of Jewish culture.
While street stalls threw the spotlight on an array of Jewish organisations, community groups and institutions across a broad spectrum of cultural, political, feminist, youth and sport activities, food trucks and stalls served up an array of delicacies.
But true to tradition, the highlight of the all-day event, held in Selwyn and Sinclair streets, was the concert which saw Jewish musicians and school students shine on stage, singing renditions of Jewish, Yiddish, Hebrew and English songs.
Performers included klezmer band Klezmania, folk singer Lauren Glezer and the boys behind folk band Husky as the Bashevis Singers.
Winner of The AJN’s Our New Voice singing competition, 11-year-old Phoenix Sherman, also took to the stage, wowing the audience with his version of Salaam.
There was also dancing, drumming and singing from school choirs from Bialik College, Mount Scopus Memorial College, Leibler Yavneh College and The King David School.
In One Voice festival manager Judith Kirszbaum said the day was a great success and exceeded organisers’ expectations.
“The aim of In One Voice is to bring the community together and we certainly achieved that,” she said.
“We had people from all different areas of the community participating and have had many people approach us to be involved in next year’s festival.
“We received such great feedback at the festival and afterwards with appreciation for In One Voice’s return that we have no doubt that the planning will soon begin for a bigger and better festival in 2016.”
Kirszbaum said a crowdfunding site has been set up to raise money for next year’s festival to secure the necessary funding involved in this community celebration.
She extended her gratitude to Kadimah and SKIF for presenting the festival.
“A special thank you to Kadimah and SKIF for bringing it back, the committee and volunteers for their amazing work and to the community for their incredibly solid support. Everyone played a part in making the event a success.”
ZOE KRON
Children enjoying the In One Voice festival on Sunday. Photo: Peter Haskin.
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