TriUMPH The 4th and the biggest! Yet again our students, led relentlessly by Jacob Loughnan, created a fabulous festival to compete with any professional music event. I cannot believe the amount of energy and compassion the student committee demonstrated. Students worked for over 12 months on this project to bring the festival to life. Not only did they accomplish this task but they had to do it all with no prior skills or knowledge AND they needed to complete it all with the pressures of VCE at the same time (time allowance? Office? Telephone? Secretary? Not for this event!) it was pulled together famously.When the big festival day arrived so did the rain! The TriUMPH wonder team rallied together and managed to move the entire event to the following week. Along came the alternative day with fearful weather watchers consulting the Bureau of Meteorology on an hourly basis. Okay so it was wet, but over 5000 students danced and sang their hearts away and had a wonderful time. The double live stage featured awesome live acts playing to an enthusiastic crowd. The DJ tent rocked and throbbed despite the rain with huge queues keen to get in. Meanwhile the Chill stage entertained huge crowds of laid back students keen to hear local talent. Food vans braved the cold weather and rain with the owners and later the bus drivers, commenting on how wonderful the student manners were. It was such a credit to all our students to hear such reports. I was so proud of all the students throughout the day. In the final wash up these young entrepreneurs have managed to: • Employ an entire village of East Timorese mothers making 5000 hand made wrist bands in the traditional Tais manner which will
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pay for the village children’s education and health needs for a long time to come. • Encouraged more sponsors than ever before to come on board to help the project - including Krock and Ghanda • Enlisted eight live bands, several accomplished Melbourne DJ’s and interviewed all the Chill stage hopefuls. • Contracted enough food vans to feed 5000 plus students • Employed PRD Music to install a double live stage, build a DJ stage and Chill stage with all the awnings and music required for a big festival • Designed a logo and applied it to a variety of merchandise There is of course a multitude of other areas I could mention but time doesn’t permit. In short a most wonderful day was had by all and the $80,000 raised will go an incredibly long way to assist the women of East Timor. Congratulations TriUMPH team and student bodies from all four schools! - Simon Cahir, School representative for St Joseph’s MY FIRST TRIUMPH FESTIVAL This year’s TRIUMPH commenced at Clonard on Friday 15 September, with the school communities of St Joseph’s, Sacred Heart, Clonard College and St Ignatius all coming together to raise money for Timor Leste and Uganda. This festival is held once every three years and all the schools look forward to it. It was a little unfortunate that the event was moved due to bad weather, and the day itself was still marred by rain. This year was my first time attending TriUMPH. There was a range of performance stages including: The Main Stage, The Chill Out Stage and the DJ Stage, all held around Clonard and Westcourt. Food trucks were available on the day with a range of food to cater for all tastes. I enjoyed seeing my friends throughout the day from the four schools, this was a great time to get together to chill and relax. Overall the day was well organised and was a great experience for me. I look forward to attending my next TriUMPH in Year 11. - Luke Carra, Year 8
