BarCappella to return to Port Macquarie this July at Settlers Inn raising money for the Mid North Coast Community Legal Centre

BarCappella, pub choirs or pop-up choirs have taken off around the world with people from all walks of life joining together to share their love and passion for music.

BarCappella is Port Macquarie’s venture and is the brainchild of Ruth Allen and Marie van Gend.

Both have been involved in the music scene in Port Macquarie for many years; Ms Allen with her ukulele ensemble, The Port Macquarie Ukestra and band, U4RiA, and Ms van Gend with her work with school choirs, and more recently, the adult choir, Kala Rava.

Together they also run the Absolutely Everybody choir, on behalf of School of Hard Knocks Port Macquarie-Hastings.

“If you sing in the shower or the car you can sing in the pub,” said Ms Allen.

“Singing in a group makes you feel brilliant, and it’s way more fun than doing it on your own – and it’s even more fun in the pub.

“On the night, we split the room into high, middle, and low voices, not good, bad and can’t-carry-a-tune-in-a bucket group and this becomes the singing group.

“It works well because individual voices won’t be heard in the crowd, so don’t stress, just come and give it a go.”

Ms van Gend said that even if you do not know the song on the night, nothing can prepare you for singing with a big group of people.

“People always ask, what if you don’t know the song, but you’ve never heard the way it’ll sound when more than 100 people sing it together,” Ms van Gend said.

“We choose songs that we know will be fun to sing and sound great when we pull it altogether. It’s less about the song than the experience of making a song together.

“It is great fun on the night, we all go to the pub and have a blast singing one fun, funky song together.

“We work on little bits at a time, stitch them back together and then we sing it it through a couple of times at the end.”

As well as a great night of fun and singing, BarCappella also raises money for different charities.

At the next event, on July 3, the group will be raising funds for the Mid North Coast Community Legal Centre (MNCCLC) and their new project supporting vulnerable young people as they transition from Out of Home Care to full adult legal responsibility.

Each year in this region over 300 young people in care will turn 18. This can be a time of uncertainty and trouble for a young person – especially if their care placement has broken down, or they’re in unstable accommodation, they can end up with a myriad of legal problems.

Many of these young people are couch surfing or homeless and with profits from July's BarCappella will enable the Legal Centre staff to shout them a meal or a coffee when they catch up with them according to legal services coordinator, Melanie Kallmier.

"Becoming a tenant, dealing with contracts, employment law problems or social security issues can be tricky for young people, and many of those problems then get entangled with criminal law problems too,” Ms Kallmier said. 

“Offering a meal can help create a bond between the legal staff and their young clients and facilitate what might otherwise be a stressful encounter.

“Thanks to all the BarCappella singers for supporting local young people this way."

The next event is at Settlers Inn on Tuesday, July 3, from 7.30pm.

For more information click here.