THE InChorus 10th birthday celebrations reached a crescendo at the weekend with a Choir-aoke concert at the Eastgate Theatre on Saturday.

The community choir's anniversary build up begun in June with a joint concert in Edinburgh with the Contemporary Youth Orchestra from America, before moving on to a performance at ‘Fizz and Flowers’ at Portmore in July, and continuing in August with a concert at the Innerleithen Music Festival, a lunchtime performance at St. Giles Cathedral, and singing on the Mercat Stage as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

The climax arrived on Saturday with the choir singing from 10am until 10pm at ten different locations around Peebles, finishing with the InChorus Choir-aoke concert.

Choir manager, Lorna Turnbull told us: “One of our members had the idea of singing at ten locations across the town, all of which were places at which we have performed over the ten years.

"We began outside our current rehearsal home at the Old Parish Church ending up at the Eastgate Theatre which is where rehearsals began ten years ago.

"On the way we visited supermarkets, Haylodge Hospital, Dovecot Court, the Burgh Hall, the Tontine Hotel and some outdoor sites.

"The reception we received at every stage was extremely heart-warming. The local people have supported us constantly over the years and that is something InChorus never forgets.”

Throughout Saturday Peebles was already busy with weddings, the Creative Peebles Festival, the Highland Games and the registration for the Tour o the Borders cycle race.

And the choir performed to sizeable audiences at each of the the venues.

The conclusion to the InChorus day was, however, a first in choir history.

The idea for the Choir-aoke came from Musical Director, Aly Skidmore.

She explained: "The choir has very much enjoyed its birthday season, and singing in St Giles, with its amazing acoustics some days ago, was particularly special, but Creative Peebles Festival is all about encouraging participation in the arts and, following the Dancing in the Street flashmob last year, I wanted to invite Peebles to come and celebrate with the choir by doing something fun and different again.”

The choir sang for the first half of the concert with Aly speaking about the choir’s ten years, remembering with emotion members they had lost.

After the interval the party started as the show was turned over to the audience which was encouraged to sing along to the choir’s well-known numbers and to participate in some basic dance moves.

Aly added: “We were amazed and delighted by the way people threw themselves into the idea right from the start, with everyone, from a year old toddler right through to octogenarians singing and dancing.

"The atmosphere was incredible. We have already had requests to run another one, so let’s see what exciting plans we can come up with for 2019.”

The choir thanks everyone who participated, and who made their celebration season possible.

They also want to thank the Peeblesshire News and Peebles Life, not only for their coverage over their celebration season, but also during the past ten years. Here’s to the next ten!