‘Wattle Sky’ will be sung by hundreds of South Australian primary school students this coming week as part of the South Australian Primary Schools Music Festival (PSMF).
The Festival of Music ‘Stars in the Arena’ concert series will be performed from Tue. 15 – Fri. 18 September 2026 at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, 7.30 pm each night.
This 15-minute choral piece, with three songs created by lyricist Jodie O’Regan and composer Joe Twist (one of the composers on Bluey), was inspired by the wattles growing along the small creek where Jodie lives in Burra (north of Adelaide, SA) as they flowered against the sky. The work follows millions of years of wattle history, right through to an experiment that sent Australian wattle (Acacia pycnantha – Golden Wattle – Australia’s national floral emblem) seeds to the International Space Station in 2020. The three songs are ‘Under the Australian Sky’, ‘Seed Lullabies’ and ‘Star Seeds’.
The original composition was commissioned by Australian Chris Bradley, director of the German choir https://tonraumfuenf10.de/ who wanted an uplifting work after the heaviness of COVID. Jodie O’Regan thought that the wattle would be perfect, joyous, bright, a great example of surviving and thriving through adversity, and an Aussie icon. The piece was premiered by tonraumfünf10 on September 23, 2023, at the Musikbrauerei in Berlin.
Following this performance, the Primary School Music Festival of South Australia commissioned Joe Twist to adapt his music for the school festival, for primary school voices and orchestra, and now the students have been practicing for over a year. Next week they will perform and their singing will be accompanied by a dance troupe and images projected onto the arena floor.
This festival is organised by the South Australian Public Primary Schools (SAPPS) Music Society who are custodians of the Primary Schools Festival of Music, a joint venture with the South Australian Department for Education. More information: About Us | Primary Schools Music Festival
Tickets can be purchased:
Primary Schools Music Festival tickets | Adelaide Entertainment Centre Arena | Ticketek Australia
Ticket Sales:
• Tickets sales are open on Monday, 27 July at 3:00 PM from Ticketek.
• Tickets for all Festival of Music concerts are $52.00 per person.
• Children under 3 are free if seated on an adult’s lap.
• A Ticketek Service and Handling Fee will apply (charged per transaction, not per ticket).
For accessibility information, please visit the Ticketek website.