THE second annual Grampians Brass Festival on Saturday was a true celebration of community bands, according to organisers.
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The event was created by Ararat City Band as a way of showcasing accomplished brass bands from Western Victoria.
Bands from across the region presented a 30 minute, themed repertoire.
The bands used costumes and theatrics to bring their performance to life.
Ararat City Band committee member and festival co-ordinator Sandra Pope said the festival was a resounding success.
“It was really good; better than last year,” she said.
“We had more people in the audience, which was fantastic.
“It just went really well. the whole night ran really smoothly and the bands enjoyed themselves. We had really good community support and sponsors from Ararat, Stawell, Halls Gap and Horsham.”
This year the event was held at the Stawell Entertainment Complex due to the redevelopment of the Ararat Performing Arts Centre.
Prize money was on offer, and bands were judged on their overall entertainment value, costumes and musical choices rather than their playing ability, as is the case with more traditional brass band competitions.
Ararat City Band secretary Amy Stevens said the committee had received a lot of feedback via Facebook.
“Grampians Brass Festival … WOW! What an awesome event!” City of Greater Dandenong Band posted on its Facebook page.
“We were fortunate enough to be one of four bands that presented a 40 minute themed entertainment performance at the Stawell Entertainment Centre … and boy was it an entertaining evening!
“A massive Thank You to the Ararat City Band committee, members, and supporters for organising and running such a great event and for their wonderful hospitality over the whole weekend.
“This is community banding at its best.”
Geelong West Brass Band posted on Facebook that the Grampians Brass Festival was a great night.
“We had an absolute blast,” the band stated.
Ms Pope said the audience members also had a great time.
“My daughter works at Aldi and she said the next day all she had was people coming in and telling her how wonderful it was,” she said.