“We can be heroes, just for one day” ….. David Bowie

Last weekend, after several weeks of rehearsal, the Primary Music team took 14 Year 5 and 6 musicians to the FOBISIA Primary Music Festival 2026. The event brought together over 270 young musicians from 16 schools across the South-East region to rehearse and perform together two finale concerts. To fully experience the festival, students also stayed alongside other participating schools in a nearby hotel for three nights.

The festival theme, Heroes, featured music including Spiderman, Bonnie Tyler’s I Need a Hero and David Bowie’s Heroes. Over three days, students rehearsed in large ensembles and smaller sectionals in preparation for the final concerts on Sunday afternoon. They also enjoyed creative workshops such as umbrella painting, samba drumming and Thai flute, as well as a cultural visit to the Jurassic World experience.

This is the second year Bangkok Patana has participated in the festival, following last year’s event in Shanghai. Performing in large-scale ensembles offers significant benefits beyond musical development, supporting collaboration, shared responsibility and the joy of collective achievement.  There is an abundance of research which further demonstrates how collaborative music-making supports children’s cognitive, emotional and social development and how its engages brain systems linked to attention, memory and self-regulation (Kraus & Chandrasekaran; Schlaug).

The festival also provided valuable opportunities for students to build friendships with peers from other schools. Through sharing music, working together and celebrating each other’s achievements, they could experience the power of community alongside developing confidence, empathy and a sense of belonging beyond their own school. These experiences support the development of the whole child—cognitively, socially and emotionally—while also aligning closely with the values of Bangkok Patana School, nurturing wellbeing, confidence, global collaboration and a lifelong passion for learning through music.

The finale concerts were a resounding success, showcasing the dedication, effort and practice that all the young musicians had invested throughout the few days. We are very proud of our own Patana Superheroes!