After a long and hot day, children danced in the rain while songs celebrating the birth of Jesus, both traditional and modern, rang out across Tamworth’s Bicentennial Park on Saturday night. 

The crowd enjoyed a variety of musical styles throughout the program, from the Tamworth RSL Brass Band and the Highland pipe band to the conservatorium’s concert band, the Combined Churches Choir and a contemporary band that performed new arrangements of some traditional carols.

Special guest Matt Doeland, from Port Macquarie, led Joy to the World and sang a few of his own songs.

A highlight of the evening was seeing children and young people from different churches come together to perform The Magi – the story of the three wise men coming to worship and give gifts to Jesus, while King Herod plotted to kill the new king, St John’s Anglican Church’s Jeanette Morris said.