Feilding Brass in the warm up room prior to going on stage.

July 12 & 13 saw Feilding Brass participate in the 2019 New Zealand Brass Band Championships which was held in Hamilton.

It has been 6 years since the band attended a National contest, and it was the first one that Musical Director Carissa Davies has taken the band to, so was a very proud moment for her.

On Friday 12th July the band played the Hymn “Mid All The Traffic” and set Test Piece “Penlee”, on day one of the C Grade competition at Claudelands Event Centre in Hamilton.

During the days leading up to and during the contest, the weather was not playing very nicely and due to the ongoing rain, the organisers decided to call off the traditional Street March part of the competition.

However, since the Claudelands Event Centre is so huge they decided to have an impromptu  “Indoor Parade of Bands” to those bands that wanted to have a march, which would not be judged. So around 7 bands including the visiting Chicago Brass Band from USA took up the offer, which pleased the public.

On Saturday 13th July, Feilding Brass played their Own Choice test music “Dark Side Of The Moon” which was well received in the auditorium, and the band came off stage feeling very proud of what we had played.

Competition results for a band that has not competed at this level for 6 years, was a good result for the band. Feilding Brass came 3rd= in the Hymn, and 4th in the Test and Own Choice with an overall placing of 4th in New Zealand for the C Grade competition for 2019.

A great deal of thanks has to go to Carissa Davies and Stephen Lawton for steering the band in the right direction leading up to and during this National contest. The band appreciates the hard work behind the scenes that was put in to getting the band into contest mode and seeing it through.

As always, getting to competition is made easier with the support of local businesses to get us there, so the band would like to acknowledge the financial support of the above businesses for backing the band.

Our next competition will be the Central Districts Association Contest, which will be on Saturday August 31st & Sunday September 1st 2019 in Palmerston North, so we look forward to seeing you there. More information about the contest will come next month.
For more photos of Feilding Brass playing at the Nationals, please click on Gallery.

Would like to say a big thanks to Tim from Brassbanned for the live streaming of this event which allows for these great photo shots.