The faces and voices of Ballarat's youth are on show for the world to see with local youngsters recorded as part of the production of the elaborate Australia Pavilion at the World Expo in Dubai.
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Seven of 13 performers from the Ballarat Centre of Music and the Arts Talent Management Agency who took part in a recording session for the expo made the final cut and are now beamed, larger than life, in to the pavilion entry to greet visitors.
The youngsters presented welcome messages and interesting facts about Australia via 10m screens.
The Australian Pavilion story, 'Blue Sky Dreaming' encapsulates Australian optimism, ambition and ingenuity. It celebrates Australian diversity and collaboration and envisions a future of infinite possibilities founded on 60,000 years of innovation.
BCMA director Paula Heenan said the children answered a last-minute call from Hepburn-based producers Accolade for the pavilion last August.
"We were called up by a casting agency who wanted kids of different ethnicities to do a little spiel about Australia," Ms Heenan said.
"There was a set of questions they could answer, like their favourite thing about being Australian, favourite animal, and the producers chose from there."
The agency had planned to record children from Melbourne but lockdown forced a change in plans and the young Ballarat performers stepped in.
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Artistic director Andrew Walsh, director Justin Weyers and film producers Mass Motion shot the footage at the Ballaarat Mechanics Institute on a Sunday in August, amid much secrecy, before being unveiled at the opening of the Australia Pavilion at the COVID-delayed World Expo 2020 in Dubai in October.
"We were able to do it very quickly and last minute because they were not able to get talent from Melbourne. Within a week we had the students recording," Ms Heenan said.
Australia is among more than 190 participating countries at the expo, which is expected to attract more than 25 million visitors including large numbers from the Gulf region, South Asia and Western Europe
The World Expo 2020 runs until March 31.
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