Posted on: 27th February 2017

North West Area 2017

Alan Fernie’s ‘St Andrews Variations’ was the challenge for us this year in Blackpool, the band have been working on it since the turn of the year. Having run it out at Preston contest in January and gaining some invaluable feedback from adjudicators and friends we felt well prepared to enter the Winter Gardens Opera House on Sunday February 26th.

As ever we stayed with Sam and Jenny at the wonderful Tregenna Hotel and made a weekend of the event and caught up with old friends.

We began contest day with a 10am rehearsal after transforming the breakfast room in a to band room at the hotel. With 17 bands in the fourth section this year the draw was split in to two halves and we didn’t have such an early start. Inevitably we drew 17th and the long wait started!

We took to the stage around 14:30 and being the last band on the hall was filing up nicely. Everything we had worked on came together on stage and our soloists excelled on the day with all of them stepping in to new roles since the New Year for this contest in particular. We knew the performance wasn’t without errors but we were very happy that there was some consistency from band room to stage that we have lacked in previous years. Unfortunately it wasn’t our day and despite positive feedback from friends, family and strangers in the audience we placed 11th on the day  A huge congratulations go out to the winners, Thornton Cleveleys Band!

Also a massive thank you to the NW Area committee and volunteers who made the day flow without incident and to time. We are still working out all of the possibilities for next year but we are hopeful that with a great result we can push for promotion to the third section.


Categorised in: Contests

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