Day 3: Museums & More Music!

Whew! We had quite the busy day here. Today was the first full day of the festival, so after a hearty hotel breakfast we headed to rehearsal for the morning. It was very engaging, and a few of our singers were selected to be soloists for the final performance. Congrats to Josie, Sophia, Daniel, and Nora B!

For lunch, we headed back to the mall food court across the way. Singers were able to choose between a few different options, with Chick-fil-A being by far the most popular. After eating, we hopped onto a bus with some of the other choirs and made our way to the West Virginia Cultural Center. The lower level of the museum recently re-opened after a complete renovation. The singers loved exploring the interactive and immersive exhibits tracing West Virginia’s history, from pre-historic fossils to Fiesta Dinnerware. Singers particularly enjoyed the coal mine recreation, but were shocked to learn about child coal miners that would have been about their age. There was also a full-scale phone operator switchboard from the time before smartphones that was very educational for them, and an interactive river projection that they had fun stepping in. Evie and Sophia also saw a bunch of insects displayed in one of the collections - we still can’t decide if they were super cool or creepy and gross.

After stopping by the gift shop, we headed back to the hotel for some free time. Many went to the mall to do some shopping (Hot Topic and Bath & Body Works were the faves). Mignon, Zuri and Violet went for another supervised dip in the hotel pool, alongside many of our new friends from the festival. Some took the opportunity to rest in their rooms, to read or play games with their roommates.

We had another festival dinner in the ballroom, with tacos and much-coveted mini-churros for dessert. We heard some of the choirs perform and then another rehearsal - but this time with a live bluegrass string band! Check out the videos at the link below. Singers also had a chance at break to meet and share information with their new friends - the festival booklets have a whole page dedicated to writing names and contact info to stay in touch!

After such a long day, we had the singers head to bed early. Looking forward to another day of singing and fun tomorrow!