Excitement in the air as Wheatbelt South seniors enjoy Hay Bales Concert sneak-peek and special afternoon tea

More than 100 seniors braved the heat on Friday to take a sneak-peek at the Perth Symphony Orchestra Hay Bales Concert arena in Narrogin. Throughout the morning, groups were given a special tour of the massive arena made out of hay bales led by Arts Narrogin events organiser Brad Flett and PSO staff and performers. Wagin residents Robin Dunham and Betty Spooner said that the visit had been “fantastic”. “They’ve done a wonderful job,” Ms Dunham said. “There’s 500 hay bales, the big ones, and there’s a thousand people coming apparently, thanks to Brad, he’s done a wonderful job as all the helpers have.” After the tour, the big crowd packed into Arts Narrogin Art Space Central for an afternoon tea hosted by the Central South Naturalists Club with music provided by local Hay Bales performers Trish Moulton, Fiona Hastie and Peter Denton. “They were saying that Ballards have donated all the bales of straw, they donated them, parked them all there and placed them all there and they’ll take them all away again,” Ms Dunham said. “It’s a credit to the country.” Ms Dunham and Ms Spooner said that the arena looked to be roughly the size of a football oval. “It’s probably not quite as big,” Ms Dunham said. “It was wider,” Ms Spooner said. “I don’t think it would be as long as a football oval,” Ms Dunham said. “They said there’ll be 1000 people and they’ll all bring their own chairs, it’s a credit to the whole town.” The PSO Hay Bales Concerts will take place on November 25, and the special afternoon made sure that people unable to get a ticket were involved in the magic. “I think it’s a wonderful thing they’ve done,” Robin said. “They said it sold out just like that, it shows you that people in the country like this kind of thing, particularly classical music, it’s lovely. “You’d be silly if you missed it if you could go, all credit to those who organised it, the whole town — and then they put this on for the oldies, it’s extra special.” It was a big day for Mr Flett. “We had them out at the site in groups of three explaining the project and they were blown out of the water,” he said. “Then I walk back in here — I’d only been seeing six or eight people at a time — I walk in here and I can’t even get to my own office. “Six towns of seniors together here; it epitomises this project, how the community has come together.”