Music, Meats, Manaakitanga — Wellington Brass Band

Kia ora and hallo to our loyal WBB fans! Thanks for following along as we journey through the Netherlands. Your support means a lot as we approach a huge milestone in the band's history.

Day 4 of the tour had us waking up in the beautiful Abdij Hotel Rolduc. These halls could tell a thousand stories and each room is filled with charm, character and relentless stifling heat!

We had yet another delectable (lekker) breakfast spread at our new digs. I’ve been enjoying having $20NZD worth of cheese every morning. There might have been a few illicit sandwiches snuck out of the breakfast hall.

After breakfast we piled onto the bus to head into the small village of Urmond for a much needed rehearsal day. My favourite kind of day! I always love the exponential growth of the band’s progress as we get competition ready. It wouldn’t be Wellington Brass without a sprint to the finish line.

Today was a great opportunity to put in some hours on our programme for this weekend. While the different sections took turns in the firing line with Dave, the rest of us had plenty of time to battle it out of a few card games of P’s and A’s.

I’m delighted to be debuting my new position in the percussion team as assistant principal wind chime player in Jack Bewleys’ Apokalypsis. My enthusiasm for this new opportunity had to be reigned in by a stern conversation with the composer himself. I’ll be working on my dynamic range.

Today saw the return of cornet legend Toby Pringle. We’re delighted to welcome him back to the band for this momentous occasion, and relieved his train left the station with him onboard. Special thanks to Garth Coffey for picking him up in Belgium and traversing the right hand side of the road.

Band practice was followed by a crisp beverage in Stein. This saw the Spence twins have a cursed 5 minutes of blood noses and wasp stings. Thankfully Pat Di Somma was on hand to share some German home remedies involving pickled onions. Prost!

We finished the day with an incredible BBQ hosted by the Societe St. Martin Fanfare de Stein. It was a stupendous affair of music, meats and manaakitanga. We loved the coming together of two bands to share a meal and connect over music. We’re so grateful to the band for their warm welcome and generosity to host 30+ hungry bandies!

We can’t wait to share the stage with them tomorrow at our joint concert in Stein.

Backrow battler signing off now,

Mollie Cornfield