Royal Aviation Show Choir Competition draws thousands to Alliance on Saturday
ALLIANCE ‑ The Royal Aviation Show Choir Competition drew thousands of students and their families to Alliance High School on Saturday.
Now in its fifth year, the one-of-kind competition in Stark County saw 15 schools from across three states compete in the all-day event.
It is the only competition of its kind in the region that limits participating schools to those with an enrollment of 1,500 or fewer students.
Carrie Chunat, the choir director at Alliance High School, said they started Royal Aviation to give smaller schools a chance to showcase their talent. At other competitions, she said larger schools frequently get all the attention, and smaller schools like Alliance felt left out.
"So that's kind of how it started," Chunat said.
She said Royal Aviation is getting bigger and gaining more attention each year. This year's competition had a record number of participants, forcing them to establish a wait list. The 15 competing schools came from Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Two other school groups, including Alliance High's Jetsetters, were non-competitive performers.
"There isn't enough time in the day to take anyone else. We've kind of maxed out the time," Chunat said.
Tyler Kinser, a member of the Alliance City Schools Board of Education, said the competition allowed the district to showcase its facilities, including the high school's 2,000-seat auditorium, and gave the local economy a small boost in late February. At least three show choirs spent a night at a hotel in Alliance.
"The whole community is benefiting from the whole competition," Kinser said.
Alliance High School junior Jenna Heslop, a member of the Jetsetters, was excited to perform on stage Saturday.
"This event is so huge because we go to all these other schools and see their competitions," Heslop said. "Then we put on one, and it's just a lot of fun."
These are the show choirs that competed in Alliance
The following choirs performed Saturday at the Royal Aviation competition:
Walsh Jesuit Harmony Gold
Strongsville Mustang Express
Euclid Varsity Chorale
North Royalton Royal Harmony
River Valley Middle School Revolution
Sheridan Northern Stars
Kenton High School Top Twenty
Buckeye Valley Visions
Kenton Middle School Dimensions
Martinsburg Middle School South Spirit (Martinsburg, West Virginia)
Ada Varsity Singers
River Valley Music Company
Musselman Kaleidoscope (Inwood, West Virginia)
Scranton High School First Edition (Scranton, Pennsylvania)
Lakeside Melodica from Ashtabula High School and hosts Alliance Middle School and Alliance Jetsetters were non-competitive performers.
At the end of the competition, judges declare a champion. Last year's champion was Musselman Kaleidoscope.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Royal Aviation Show Choir Competition draws thousands to Alliance High
