Bandamonium!
The third Bandamonium Festival took place at the end of July, with hundreds of musicians taking part in the non-competing Brass Band festival in West Devon. Founded by Tim Williams, this year saw bands playing in six village locations on the afternoon of Saturday 27th July, before all meeting up in Hatherleigh Square for massed bands in the evening. The event is totally free for the bands and audience with a spokesperson for the event confirming, “It's one of our core principles and we're adamant that we'll stick with that! Another of our core principals is incredibly important for the bands, actually it should be the top of the list.... the bands get to let their hair down and have fun!”
Following a day of fantastic entertainment from the 18 bands that took part, the day concluded with massed bands perforing the hymn 'Abide with Me', 'Lux Aurumque' and 'Prismatic Light'.
Although the festival is non-competitive two prizes are awarded. This year he Lympstone Band took the 'Best Band Award' with Okehampton Excelsior awarded the 'People's Choice'. The weekend was rounded off in fine style with around 50 players, who hadn’t had enought the day before, playing in a community church service on Sunday.
The success of the weekend was summed up brilliantly by one of the organisers on the event’s social media page, “Wow- how amazing was that then?! Everyone put in a fantastic effort to make it the Best Bandamonium yet! Special mention to Lympstone Band who won Best Band for the second time in a row and Okehampton Excelsior Band who won The Peoples' choice award. But it’s not a competition and...in the words of Mr W our founder- you were all his favourites!”
The 2025 event will take place on the weekend of Saturday 16th August. Further information is available at: www.bandamonium.co.uk
To enjoy images and videos of this year’s festival go to: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.995842172338573&type=3
https://www.youtube.com/@bandamoniumbrassband
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