May 31 was certainly a busy day for EYBS, but it was also a ton of fun! We kicked things off by spending the afternoon outdoors at the SING! Vocal Arts Festival in the Distillery District, letting passers-by get the full "barbershop rehearsal experience". After a quick dinner break it was on to the Metropolitan United Church to perform on The Quantum Show, to a great reception from the enthusiastic audience.
The SING! event was unique given the workshop format. With our great location in the main square our audience was constantly renewed, and they really seemed to appreciate getting to see how we learn and practice. And of course we regularly performed full songs so they could see the results of our practice efforts. We managed to get a few of the audience to sing some tags with us, gave out lots of business cards, and are hoping to get some guests out on Tuesday's as a result. All that and some great suntans - not a bad afternoon at all!
After rehearsing all afternoon, we were ready for our performance on The Quantum Show. Quantum kicked things off in fine form, and then EYBS performed an 8 song set that got us a standing ovation. Nice! The second half featured two amazing quartets from the US, Instant Classic and GQ. They performed on their own and in several different mixed ensembles, and blew the crowd away. We were certainly honoured to have shared the stage with all three quartets, and really appreciate Quantum having us on their show!
We all went home exhausted, but with a great day of barbershop under our belt.