Victorian State Champions 2017
Each year bands come from all over Victoria to compete in the State Brass Band Championships in Ballarat, and this year on August 19th Footscray Yarraville City Band competed for the prestigious title of State Champions. With a full program of Hymn, Test Piece, March and Entertainment Item, we performed at Her Majesty’s Theatre Ballarat, a beautiful old theatre with lovely acoustics. The highlight of the contest for the audience is arguably the feet warmers in the old theatre, which keep your toes warm after being outside in the Ballarat winter. The crowd favourite item was a salsa, which saw soloists Jamie Lawson, Brenton Burley, Nicole Tweddle and Emily Furlong entertain the crowd, accompanied by the band with nifty choreography as well as playing and singing. (The back row cornets in particular had all the moves…) Up against very stiff opposition, our entertaining style and beautiful hymn playing won the day, and FYCB were absolutely thrilled to win the title of State Champions in A grade! The band is very proud of our achievement, and especially the hard work and dedication from our conductor Phillipa Edwards. A big thank you to the Victorian Bands’ League for running and organizing the contest, we look forward to defending our title next year. 