Brass Band Contests
A brass band contest has been held in Stalybridge on Whit Friday since at least 1870. On Whit Friday 1884, 6 June, two further unconnected events in Uppermill and Mossley were held, inadvertently launching an internationally renowned and unique brass band occasion - the Annual Whit Friday Band Contests. The Whit Friday contests are now firmly placed in the brass band calendar and attract thousands of people, whether musicians or spectators, to listen to brass band music. The bands' discipline, stamina, and organisational skills are tested to the limit. Each of the contests on the Whit Friday circuit is organised by a dedicated committee who organise their own contest prizes.
Read more about this topic: Whit Friday
Famous quotes containing the words brass, band and/or contests:
“You could almost see the brass on her gleaming,
Not quite. The mist was to light what red
Is to fire. And her mainmast tapered to nothing,
Without teetering a millimeter’s measure.
The beads on her rails seemed to grasp at transparence.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Nothing makes a man feel older than to hear a band coming up the street and not to have the impulse to rush downstairs and out on to the sidewalk.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“I love to deal with doctrines and events. The contests of men about men I greatly dislike.”
—James A. Garfield (1831–1881)