Brass Band Festival to strike perfect tone for visiting walkers
THE second annual Castlebar Brass Band Festival is being held this year in conjunction with the Castlebar International Four Days Walks.
It is being staged on Saturday next, June 30, and it is expected to be of particular appeal to the many visitors in the county town for the weekend as well as locals.
The new president of the walking festival, Mick Baynes, has been working closely with the committee of Castlebar Concert Band to put the programme together and it promises to light up the town centre for four hours on Saturday afternoon in a very musical fashion.
The participating bands are St. Patrick’s Brass Band, Galway, Foxford Brass and Reel Band, Westport Town Band, Castlerea Brass Band and Castlebar Concert Band.
After assembling at St. Patrick's National School, they will parade through the town centre at 2.45 p.m. to announce their arrival.
The route is Gallow's Hill, Tucker Street, Linenhall Street, Main Street, Ellison Street, Mountain View, Stephen Garvey Way, Hopkins Road and finishing at the 1798 monument at Market Square where all the bands will jointly play a number of pieces.
The parade will then proceed through Shamble Street, Castle Street and Castle Street car park where it will be met by walkers and ramblers returning from their day's trek.
From 4.15 p.m., each of the bands will perform at different locations in the town centre with an enclosed area at the Bridge Street pedestrian route being the main recital area to entertain the visiting walkers.
First on stage there for 20-25 minutes will be Galway Brass Band, followed by Foxford, Westport, Castlerea and Castlebar.
The other town centre locations at which bands will be performing throughout the afternoon include the area at Vaughan's Shoe Shop, the Kodak Shop, Ellison Street, Johnny McHale's, Newline, New Look at Hopkins Road and SuperValu.
As a finale, all of the bands will meet up again outside Elverys Sports at 6.45 p.m. to perform two final pieces.
A number of the visiting bands, along with Castlebar, will then be participating in the Parade of Nations hosted by the Castlebar Walking Festival after 7 p.m. Mass on Saturday at the Church of the Holy Rosary, Castlebar.
A very colourful event which was revived last year, the route is Chapel Street, Tucker Street, Linenhall Street, Main Street, Ellison Street and Mountain View before drawing to a close at the TF Royal Hotel where the Mayo Youth Orchestra, preparing for its trip to Tuscany, will perform for over half an hour to round off a memorable day of walking and music.
The organisers have appealed for the cooperation of the public during the running of the two parades at 2.45 p.m. and 7.45 p.m.