By Bruce Karnick

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The Hastings Choir program hosts a yearly show choir event called Swingin’ on the River. 16 groups from 11 different schools from Minnesota and Wisconsin spent all of Saturday, Feb. 26 in Hastings. That was over 900 performers plus their families that made up seven prep groups and nine varsity groups, not including the Hastings Performers.

HHS Choir Director Luke Warren was ecstatic about how the day went.

“Truly this year is one of the best competition days we have ever had,” he said. “It was a really uplifting and supportive day for all of our visiting groups and that is simply a credit to our incredible parent volunteers and our students’ pride in making this the best possible weekend for everyone involved. Our facility is the best in the Midwest, and it is such a point of pride for us to welcome others into the space. Visiting parents and students simply marvel at the school and the auditorium. It is a good reminder of how lucky we are to have a facility like we do, but also how investment in the community and our schools can be such a draw to people and an incredible way for us to show off our schools and community.”

The high school was filled with families, fans, singers and vendors. It was an overall great day at HHS.

“It was a joy to have the auditorium filled up and a full competition happening. It is absolutely one of my favorite days of the entire year,” said Warren. “The kids have been so excited for this day. Again, they take a lot of pride in making this the best competition they can. I think it is also an added bonus to perform for a packed full auditorium at the end of the day and night finals. It was absolutely electric!”

Hastings choirs did perform on the day as well, but only as an exhibition performance, Warren explained that side, “Host groups do not compete at their own contests. This is standard practice throughout the show choir circuit. Our job for the day is to host all others and then give incredible exhibition performances to cap off both the daytime and night finals rounds.”

The results below were provided by parent volunteers: Congratulations to Vocalmotive, winners of Swingin' on the River 2022. This is their first SOTR win!

Special recognition to West Salem Show Choirs, Sparta Upstage Adrenaline and Green Bay Spotlight Singers for making their first appearance at SOTR, and to Tomah Limited Edition for making their first trip here in 18 years!

A sincere THANK YOU to ALL choirs and spectators who attended. It was so wonderful to see our school filled with music again and it was our honor to host you.

Full results: Varsity: 1st: Vocalmotive (Bemidji) 2nd: Rhythm in Gold (Bloomington Kennedy) 3rd: Jefferson Connection (Bloomington Jefferson) 4th: Limited Edition (Tomah) 5th: Company of Singers (Totino Grace) 6th: Northern Lights (North St. Paul) Prep: 1st: La Voce Ballo (Bemidji) 2nd: Jive (Bloomington Jefferson) 3rd: Vivace (West Salem) Best Vocals: Vocalmotive Best Choreography: Vocalmotive Best Band: Vocalmotive Best Crew: Rhythm in Gold People's Choice: Limited Edition Best soloist – Varsity: Oliver Bauch (Rhythm in Gold) Best soloist – Prep: Marissa Gettemans (La Voce Ballo) Up next for the Hastings show choirs is the Totino Grace Show Choir Spectacular on Saturday, March 5. Dynamic Edition performs at 8:25 a.m. and Riverside Company at 3:45 pm. This is the final competition of the season for both.

Photos by Jeannie Tribe.