Students from Port Fairy Consolidated and St Patrick’s primary schools will feature at the festival’s opening and closing concerts.

The opening night gala will be held at the Southcombe Park stadium and will follow the festival theme of  migrations. 

Singers Tara Tiba, Taryn Fiebig and Jessica Hitchcock will join grade 4-6 children from both schools on the debut performance of My Mother’s Mother.

The children researched how their families first came to Australia, with those experiences used to help write My Mother’s Mother.

The school choirs will also feature at the closing concert, One Mongrel Breed, on Sunday afternoon at the Southcombe Park stadium.

One Mongrel Breed is a line from a composition from the late Jimmy Chi, whose works will be celebrated throughout the concert.

Joining the school choirs will be the Port Fairy Community Choir. 

Festival director Iain Grandage said including the Port Fairy community is a key aim.

“We want to make the people of Port Fairy a big part of what is happening,” Mr Grandage said.

“We don’t want the festival to be a whole pile of people coming into the town for the weekend and then just as quickly disappearing.

“The interaction between the visitors and the people of Port Fairy is very important. The more it grows, the better event the festival becomes.

“To have the schoolchildren involved is great. They have some fascinating tales of their family migration which I’m sure has been valuable for them to learn along the way.”

Festival ticket sales are at an all-time high and increasing by 200-300 each year.

The breakdown of ticket sales shows 50 per cent of people come from Melbourne, 30 per cent from Western Victoria and the remaining 20 per cent from even further afield.

Featured shows at the festival include Pandora’s Box on Friday night at Reardon Theatre, Of Foreign Lands & People on Saturday morning in the Lecture Hall, Across The Water at the Drill Hall on Saturday afternoon, East Meets West on Sunday morning at the Lecture Hall, and Stalin’s Piano at the Drill Hall on Sunday afternoon.