While most bands have been taking a well deserved rest over the past few weeks, we have been busier than ever! The engagements list between June and September saw an average of one per week (possibly more)!

Everyone knows of our reputation at march contests and we upheld this with three wins within the space of a month! These came at the Easingwold, Brighouse and Morley competitions. Along the way we picked up various individual prizes such as Best Contest March, Best Soloist, Best Hymn Tune and principal cornet player Jason Evans claimed yet another Best Cornet award at Brighouse, receiving a brand new Yamaha Zeno Cornet for his efforts!

We continued our annual tradition of taking part in the annual Durham Miners' Gala, regarded as the Whit Friday of the North East, with Jason again taking centre stage by delighting the crowds with two 'stunning' (according to reports) renditions of Post Horn Galop. Other engagements have included several '12 Piece' bookings for our sponsors Ossett Brewery at some of their pubs and inns around the region. Whilst being more relaxed concerts they give the band an opportunity to reach an audience that wouldn't usually listen to brass band music.

Even though we managed to fulfill one of our prestigious bookings at York Races this summer, a sun drenched Saturday at the end of July, our other engagements became victims of the terrible weather towards the end of August when all of the Ebor Cup meetings were cancelled. One engagement that did survive the weather was the Yorkshire Festival at Harewood House near Harrogate, a great venue where we provided fairly light music of a traditionally Yorkshire and British flavour inbetween the main events in the arena.

Our final concert of the 'Summer Season' saw us return to Ilkley yet again for the finale of their Summer Festival. This is always a big event held in the middle of the picturesque town, with hundreds of people lining the streets with some dining at tables in candlelight! Like the Harewood the concert it has a traditional and classic feel to it but we decided to make it more international this year featuring Hine Hine from New Zealand and Cappriccio Espagnol. Of course we included Scotland ('For The Love of a Princess' from Braveheart), Ireland (Riverdance) and as usual we had a Welsh conductor, although it wasn't our usual MD Glyn Williams, it was his colleague from The Fodens Band, Gareth Westwood. After the usual 'Last Night of the Proms' standards the climax of the evening sees Tchaikovsky's famous 1812 Overture accompanied by fireworks high up on the moors, overlooking the town centre.

This summer round up would not be complete without a special mention of congratulations to two couples from the band. Firstly, 3rd Cornet player Laura Maynard and 1st Horn Andrew Eastwood on the birth of their son Alfie and secondly the marriage of our MD Glyn Williams to Helen Fox, Flugel player of Fodens (and resident 'dep' at Marsden!). The band's best wishes go out to you all!