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1st January 2025
Festive summary
There's few things more festive than a brass band, and Christmas is always our busiest time of year. This year our players have performed no less than 19 concerts throughout December from Light switch on events in surrounding villages to carol concerts in our communities. This year also saw the return of annual Christmas concert which took place in the masonic hall in Kirkby Stephen and provided a fabulous evening of festive entertainment, mulled wine and mince pies.
Our training band deserve a special mention this year for their outstanding community work brining Christmas cheer to residents of three local care homes, nurseries, mother and toddler groups and scout group. Brining music to those who might not otherwise get to enjoy it and giving youngsters their first taste of what a band does is an incredibly important part of what we do- it's just one of the ways we give back to our local community.
As if this wasn't enough, the band was set a fundraising challenge- members were asked to record themselves playing a Christmas song to form an advent calendar which was enjoyed by followers on our social media pages. Our online audience were treated to a daily dose of festive brass every day up until Christmas with donations being sought to help us raise funds to make our rehearsal space fully accessible.
Highlights of the season included the ever popular carols at the mart and a marathon two day shift busking at Tebay services, concluding with a Christmas eve carol concert in a packed to the rafters Fat Lamb pub. All in all we have had a fabulous festive season.
If you missed out you can watch our Christmas Concert here:
16th July 2024
Brass at the Castle was a huge success!
Over the weekend of the 13th-14th July, the band attanded a weekend long festival of brass at Lowther Castle. Brass at the Castle was organised by our partners, Drum and Brass, with our Eb bass player Julie putting in huge amounts of work to pull this off. Bands from across Cumbria came togther to promote brass music with a focus on inspiring new players to join their local band. Despite the typical Cumbrian rain a great time was still has by all. Some of our memebrs worked tirelessy all weekend and beyond from putting up gazeebos to baking scones, from marshalling to maning the reception tent. That's all on top of taking part in no less that four seperete performances for some of us! ITV bews were even in attendence and our band members did so well being interviewed for this, as you can see below. Now we are all off for a well desereved rest. Wait, no we aren't, we've got to prepare for Westmorland Dales Day! See you then.
24th June 2024
It's been a busy year so far for both our main band and our Beginners groups...
The main band played a knock out performance at the Engine Shed in April as our annual spring concert. The crowd enjoyed a drink and danced the night away to hits from the likes of The Seekers and The Monkees as well as some more traditional pieces.
June is also rush bearing season in Cumbria and the band have been out and about with their marching boots on providing the live backdrop to these quaint parades in Warcop and Musgrave. Rushbearing is an old tradition dating back to the days when churches had bare earth floors which would be covered in rushes. Each year a service was held in which the old rushes were replaced with new. This tradition has survived in small pockets of the country and can be seen in communities in Cumbria. These days local children where flower crowns and carry crosses made of rushes as the processions wind their way though our villages.
This year has seen our beginners group spearhead their new 'Bands in the Nursery' project. The aim is to take music to the youngest members of our communities. Research shows that being involved in music from a young age promotes early language development and helps with fine motor skills. So far the group have visited Ravenstonedale nursery, Brough mother and toddler group as well as a slightly older group in the local cubs. The sessions had an interactive feel with the plenty of actions, shakers and drums so the young people could join in. If you'd like us to appear at your preshcool group get in touch!
