The 2025 Victorian State Schools Spectacular (VSSS) returns for its annual extravaganza for two shows on Saturday 13 September 2025 at 1pm and 6:30pm at John Cain Arena.Celebrating its incredible 30th Anniversary, tickets to this year’s VSSS on sale now and selling fast at ticketek.com.au/spectacularSince the inaugural VSSS in 1995, Victorian students have had the opportunity to take part in the Spectacular where it has seen talent such as Vanessa Amorosi, Opera Australia soprano Nicole Car, Tina Turner the Musical lead Ruva Ngwenya, The Voice winner Harrison Craig and award winning music theatre star Max McKenna all having been a part of the VSSS during their school years.In 2025, 2500 Victorian students from 200 government schools have begun an extraordinary 7-month creative journey, which will culminate in the state’s budding creative talent taking to the stage as circus artists, musicians, singers and dancers as well as further students taking on the incredibly important behind-the-scenes roles in stage management, audio, lighting, vision, costumes, and production. 
This year’s show – On Air – is taking flight and soaring high, reaching new stratospheric heights of performance! The show will explore the element that unifies all of us, and indeed, life on the planet – AIR – every breath, every breeze, every sigh. Following the metaphor of air, through music, dance and performance, the show investigates concepts of facing one’s fears, breathing in one’s self belief, through to the stories heard on the wind in a children’s lullaby. The show will begin with a grand celebration of the air with leading Victorian Aerialists literally dancing in the air suspended high above the stage of John Cain Arena. It will continue through welcoming back the First Nations Ensemble with their new work ‘Cicadas’, led by Na Djinang Circus. We also welcome the award winning Pese Mai vocalists with songs performed in multiple First Nations languages.Carefully curated through suggestions from the students, there will be over 42 musical items in this year’s show featuring music from Sheppard, Max Richter, Queen, Gotye, Ibrahim Maalouf, Sergio Medes, Karl Jenkins, Gloria Estefan, Top-loader, Connor Price and Six60 amongst many others. The orchestra will also be playing specially commissioned original music by Kai Chen Lim.The 2500 students are made up of Principal Vocalists, Principal Dancers, Backing Vocalists, Victorian State Schools Choir, a 75-piece orchestra, 1200 mass dance students and 1100 in the mass choir. Providing the experience of a lifetime, participating primary and secondary school students work with industry professionals across several disciplines as part of the preparation and performance of the Spectacular providing a unique training opportunity for students onstage as well as backstage in areas like stage management, audio, lighting and video.The VSSS is a proud tradition in Victorian government schools since its inception in 1995 and offers students the opportunity to take part in this heart-warming live stage showcase performing to thousands of people and later broadcast on television.Students in the VSSS train and perform under the guidance of industry professionals who make up the Creative Team including Creative Director Neill Gladwin, Musical Director Chong Lim AM, Dance Director Yvette Lee, Creative Producer Simon K Patterson, Costume Designer Isaac Lummis, and award-winning Lighting Designer Paul Jackson.Quote attributable to Creative Director Neill Gladwin“This year our student cast gave us song themes of flying, floating and soaring; music that was truly on air. From these ideas the 2025 Spectacular was born – transcending the terrestrial and embracing the stratosphere.The Spectacular brings strength and empowerment to the students, and their journey and experience in hand brings strength to their teachers and families. Strong happy communities are healthy communities. Worthy of celebration.”Quote attributable to Music Director Chong Lim AM“The VSSS is such an important and unique inspirational experience for every single student involved. I wish I had this opportunity when I was starting out. Students are trained to perform in very professional and high-level commercial concerts and as an extra bonus, make lifelong like-minded friends who are interested in the performing arts.”Quote attributable to Dance Director Yvette Lee“Seeing the students’ progress over the year from rehearsals until the big day is one of the greatest joys to watch. Their energy and passion is evident in every dance rehearsal and their excitement on show day explodes as they live their best life on stage. They learn so much during this process and I am thrilled that I get to see them flourish throughout the entire process and overjoyed as some of them continue into the world of the performing arts after their school years.”Supporting the Victorian Government’s Education State targets, the Spectacular ensures more students reach the highest levels of achievement in the arts, music creativity helping to create happy, healthy and resilient children, building pride and confidence in our schools.The Spectacular will be performed twice on 13 September and broadcast at a later date, with tickets on sale now at ticketek.com.au/spectacular
This year’s show – On Air – is taking flight and soaring high, reaching new stratospheric heights of performance! The show will explore the element that unifies all of us, and indeed, life on the planet – AIR – every breath, every breeze, every sigh. Following the metaphor of air, through music, dance and performance, the show investigates concepts of facing one’s fears, breathing in one’s self belief, through to the stories heard on the wind in a children’s lullaby. The show will begin with a grand celebration of the air with leading Victorian Aerialists literally dancing in the air suspended high above the stage of John Cain Arena. It will continue through welcoming back the First Nations Ensemble with their new work ‘Cicadas’, led by Na Djinang Circus. We also welcome the award winning Pese Mai vocalists with songs performed in multiple First Nations languages.Carefully curated through suggestions from the students, there will be over 42 musical items in this year’s show featuring music from Sheppard, Max Richter, Queen, Gotye, Ibrahim Maalouf, Sergio Medes, Karl Jenkins, Gloria Estefan, Top-loader, Connor Price and Six60 amongst many others. The orchestra will also be playing specially commissioned original music by Kai Chen Lim.The 2500 students are made up of Principal Vocalists, Principal Dancers, Backing Vocalists, Victorian State Schools Choir, a 75-piece orchestra, 1200 mass dance students and 1100 in the mass choir. Providing the experience of a lifetime, participating primary and secondary school students work with industry professionals across several disciplines as part of the preparation and performance of the Spectacular providing a unique training opportunity for students onstage as well as backstage in areas like stage management, audio, lighting and video.The VSSS is a proud tradition in Victorian government schools since its inception in 1995 and offers students the opportunity to take part in this heart-warming live stage showcase performing to thousands of people and later broadcast on television.Students in the VSSS train and perform under the guidance of industry professionals who make up the Creative Team including Creative Director Neill Gladwin, Musical Director Chong Lim AM, Dance Director Yvette Lee, Creative Producer Simon K Patterson, Costume Designer Isaac Lummis, and award-winning Lighting Designer Paul Jackson.Quote attributable to Creative Director Neill Gladwin“This year our student cast gave us song themes of flying, floating and soaring; music that was truly on air. From these ideas the 2025 Spectacular was born – transcending the terrestrial and embracing the stratosphere.The Spectacular brings strength and empowerment to the students, and their journey and experience in hand brings strength to their teachers and families. Strong happy communities are healthy communities. Worthy of celebration.”Quote attributable to Music Director Chong Lim AM“The VSSS is such an important and unique inspirational experience for every single student involved. I wish I had this opportunity when I was starting out. Students are trained to perform in very professional and high-level commercial concerts and as an extra bonus, make lifelong like-minded friends who are interested in the performing arts.”Quote attributable to Dance Director Yvette Lee“Seeing the students’ progress over the year from rehearsals until the big day is one of the greatest joys to watch. Their energy and passion is evident in every dance rehearsal and their excitement on show day explodes as they live their best life on stage. They learn so much during this process and I am thrilled that I get to see them flourish throughout the entire process and overjoyed as some of them continue into the world of the performing arts after their school years.”Supporting the Victorian Government’s Education State targets, the Spectacular ensures more students reach the highest levels of achievement in the arts, music creativity helping to create happy, healthy and resilient children, building pride and confidence in our schools.The Spectacular will be performed twice on 13 September and broadcast at a later date, with tickets on sale now at ticketek.com.au/spectacular
