After months of perfecting their moves and tuning their vocals, 3000 students came together at the WIN Entertainment Centre in Wollongong for Southern Stars – The Arena Spectacular at the weekend.

The four shows, on Friday and Saturday, celebrated the performing arts through mass choreographed song and dance.

‘‘Some of the pieces have just been extraordinary, our drama piece around the Anzac [100th anniversary] commemoration was absolutely extraordinary – I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house,’’ executive producer Ian Millard said. 

The 15th instalment of the production raked in $30,000 more in ticket sales than the previous high and organisers were hopeful of hitting the $300,000 mark.

‘‘It shows it’s been a very successful show, that the Wollongong community in particular value our show...and it also makes us feel very confident to continue the show on in future years,’’ he said.

Students and teachers met at various schools every weekend for the past eight weeks to practise their moves, while behind-the-scenes work has been ongoing since late last year.

‘‘It’s quite extraordinary [to see the pieces of the show come together], I think it gives the kids a great sense of achievement,’’ he said.

‘‘For some kids, they’ll go on and they’ll have careers in this industry...and for other kids it’s a chance just to be on the stage for at least once in their life and enjoy the applause from the community and their parents.’’

Southern Stars 2015 involved 90 schools from across southern NSW, including the Shoalhaven, but also included students from Sydney, the Hunter and as far afield as Bourke.

‘‘It’s a big ride for those kids because...not only are they experiencing our show but they’re right alongside the ocean, which of course for the kids from Bourke that alone is pretty extraordinary,’’ he said.

‘‘The way we approach the show is that we are one big family,  and the kids, no matter which school they come from, are very quickly assimilated into everything.’’