Big Big Sing – a UK-wide celebration of singing, encouraging the nation to start enjoying the health and well-being benefits of singing – brought a crowd of thousands, from all walks of life, together in song at the spectacular Big Big BIG Sing at Glasgow Green Live Zone today, as part of Festival 2014.
With over 40,000 people visiting Glasgow Green across the day and around 14,000 in attendance during the Big Big BIG Sing’s main stage sing-along performance, Glasgow Green was truly alive with the sound of music.
The Big Big BIG Sing began at 8am, before the Glasgow 2014 marathon runners set off on their route around the city, and the crowd enjoyed the various Big Big Sing activities taking place throughout the Glasgow Green Live Zone including a Musicals’ Marathon at The Playhouse where participants could drop in and sing along to their favourite hits from well-known musicals, Big Big Sing’s Pied Piper and various Come and Try Sessions including Indian Singing, Beat Boxing and Gaelic Singing.
Crowds then cheered the marathon runners as they returned to the finish line at Glasgow Green, led by Gold Medal winner Michael Shelley before Big Big Sing’s exuberant team of choirleaders, led by Stephen Deazley and Eugene Skeef took to the Main Stage, rousing the enthusiastic crowd to sing together as one huge choir. The positive spirit of Big Big Sing was clear to see in the crowd as they sang songs such as Amazing Grace and the beautiful Kenyan song, Kothbiro from the Big Big Commonwealth Songbook, curated especially for the project, as well as classics new and old such as Pharrell Williams’ Happy and Bill Withers’ Lean On Me.
Also taking to the stage were renowned beat boxers Jason Singh and Bellatrix, Indian singer and composer Ranjana Ghatak, the fantastic Soul Nation Choir and the winners of Big Big Sing’s Schools’ Songwriting Competition Loch Primary School – who performed their song, inspired by Glasgow 2014, Jump, Swim, Run – and Shannon McLean, Evelyn Martin and Lucy Howie from Balfron High School, who performed their composition Life’s a Game. Both acts were accompanied by a full band and backing chorus and were helped along by the enthusiastic crowd gathered in Glasgow Green.
As well as singers and performers from across the Commonwealth, MSP and the Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop also attended the festivities, describing the day she said,
“The atmosphere at the Big Big BIG Sing has been incredible, so many people from all different walks of life singing and having fun together is fantastic, everyone is so happy – a great example of the spirit of the Commonwealth Games and of course, the spirit of Glasgow. The Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme is enhancing the Games experience for Scotland’s communities, spectators and visitors as well as presenting the best of Scotland’s culture.”
The afternoon’s performance concluded with a unique mash-up of music from throughout the day, merging singing styles and traditions in a spectacular finale. But the fun didn’t stop there, the Main Stage was then transformed into an open air cinema, for a one-off sing-a-long screening of Singin’ in the Rain!
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