What is an IV?
IVCF (more fondly known as IV) is the annual Australian InterVarsity Choral Festival. This festival cycles through the capital cities of those states which have AICSA member choirs and takes place over two weeks usually during June/July or January/February, coinciding with University common holidays. During the two weeks of the IVCF, AICSA members choirs join together to prepare and perform one or two major concerts, often involving the local State Orchestra and accomplished soloists.
Alongside the intense rehearsal and performance schedule runs an equally gruelling social schedule involving pub nights, the Annual Revue, the Academic Dinner and catching up with the many interstate friendships that are forged within the Intervarsity Choral Movement. The number of attendees at the IVCFs ranges between 100-250 or so choristers, made up both of current AICSA choristers and past members returning just for the IVCF.
The first Australian Intervarsity Choral Festival took place in 1950 when the Sydney University Musical Society (SUMS) hosted the Melbourne University Choral Society (MUCS) for a week-long rehearsal camp culminating in a combined concert. Other university choirs joined over the years, with all State capitals (except Darwin in the Northern Territory) having at least one member choir by 1973. The IVCF has since become the largest regularly occurring choral festival in Australia.
AICSA Members are choirs from Universities around the country. These choirs have a broad membership base, with undergraduate and postgraduate students from all types of degrees (the least frequent type of degree probably being music!) making up the majority. The choirs are generally also open to anyone else (AICSA choirs are un-auditioned as a rule) and there are a good number of non-student members, including University staff and many people not associated with the Universities in any way.
Current AICSA member choirs are:
| ACT | Western Australia | Victoria |
| SCUNA | PUCS | MUCS |
| MonUCS | ||
| South Australia | New South Wales | ROCS |
| AUCS | SUMS | ACU |
| FUCS | MuscUTS | |
| MUS | Queensland | |
| Tasmania | QUMS | |
| TUMS |