The three-day annual singing competition, for those aged 20 and under, began on Friday evening at the University of Otago Castle 1 lecture theatre and received a total of 58 entries from as far as Hamilton.
Convener Peter Thomson said this was the competition’s second year rebranded as "SongFest".
The competition had been running for more than 75 years and was formerly known as the Green Island Junior Vocal Competition.
Giving young people an opportunity to sing to an audience from a stage helped them to grow their confidence as a performer and their self-esteem, Mr Thomson said.
It was "more than just a singing competition".
"SongFest is all about a performance experience, to give the kids that performance experience singing from a stage.
"What it enables them to do over the weekend is the more they do it, the less nerves they have."
The look and feel had been changed to deliberately appeal to teenagers, Mr Thomson said.
This included advertising more on social media and developing a TikTok presence.
The competition had "much more depth about it now".
"There’s kids here with microphones singing to full backing tracks, and they were blowing the back off the auditorium wall.
"It was a couple of girls singing jazz numbers, and we’ve never had that before.
"Normally it’s somebody playing a piano quietly and a kid standing there very still, singing beautifully.
"Now they’re standing there, it’s like a performance in a pub or whatever.
"There’s quite a different vibe in the place now."
