Please add your stories, reminisciences and recollections about the 1950 Sydney IV by editing this page. Feel free to add your name at the end of your item, and please create a personal page for yourself witha short biography.
The 1950 Sydney festival, naturally enough, was full of ‘firsts’. Although both SUMS and MUCS had been going on rehearsal camps and short country tours for several years, this was the first time that there was a body of unfamiliar choristers who needed to be entertained and impressed, and whom it was necessary to get to know better. One of the most commonly recalled of the events at camp was the performance of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas which SUMS performed for the visitors one evening. The costumes were made at camp from bedsheets and dyed cheesecloth, and make-shift lighting was erected using an old army spotlight. This began a tradition that survived well into the 1960s of one society presenting a well-rehearsed stage production during camp.