The Grong Grong School of Arts hosted a successful fire circle session at the Royal Hotel over the weekend.

The event saw musicians from all over the region travel to Grong Grong to share their love and knowledge of music.

According to Gemma Purcell, a member of the School of Arts committee, there was great demand for another event after their Open Mic night a few months ago.

“A couple of months ago we had an open mic night and that was just a huge success for a little tiny town and a number of the musicians said, ‘can we do it again’,” she said.

“We talked to the managers at the Royal Hotel and said ‘look we’ve got a couple of musos who want to do a jam session around the fire buckets where they just build on each other and they said ‘absolutely!’

“Some of the musicians started shoulder tapping other musicians and saying ‘we’re gonna have a jam session, doesn’t matter if we haven’t met you, doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner, doesn’t matter if you’ve been playing for 50 years – come and join us’.

“We ended up with 17 musicians, many of whom didn’t know each other, playing at the pub all day… they came from Griffith all the way to the border and just drove up for the day, it was great.”

The initial idea was to host the event in the hotel beer garden around the fire but they eventually moved inside due to the weather.

There were a range of instruments on the day ranging from guitars to recorders and even a violin. As of yet there are no concrete plans as to when the next one might be however the School of Arts is thinking of hosting another one before Winter ends.

“From the school of arts perspective, we just hope to host some kind of event whether it’s music or theatre every few months- that’s what our aim is,” Mrs Purcell said.

“We’re really keen to make Grong Grong a destination for good music.”

This article appeared in the Narrandera Argus, 22 June 2023.