Petworth Town Band promise "magical evening of festive music and community spirit"
Petworth Town Band will be getting festive with their Step into Christmas concert on Saturday, December 13 at 7.30pm (doors open 7pm) at St Mary's Church, Petworth.
Tickets are £12 (£12.80 including fees) available from the band website, from Austen’s in Petworth and on the door.
Bandmaster Martyn Streeter is promising a magical evening of festive music and community spirit, featuring a special performance by guest choir ReChoired.
The band has been building its Christmas concerts since lockdown. They used to happen more sporadically in the past.
“In recent years we have tried to include other organisations as well to make it not just Petworth Town Band, and for the last couple of years we have had the choir ReChoired with us which has been great. In a way they are similar to us as a band in that they will take anybody and in that they have a good time. They really enjoy it. It's a very relaxed choir and they sing all sorts of music. It's really joyful. It's a really upbeat and they are very, very good. They're similar to us in that respect. They sing modern things and they sing a lot of upbeat things. They have been coming along with us for the past two or three years. They are based in Turners Hill and lot of them come to Petworth and really make a weekend of it.”
As for the concert, it will include Fairy Tale in New York arranged for brass plus compilations of Christmas music and carols. And also marking the song’s 50th anniversary, the band will perform Bohemian Rhapsody, again arranged for brass.
“Another thing with the Christmas concert that has really become a important feature is that we have the Petworth Town Band Christmas raffle. The prizes are pretty damn good. We've got some ladies within the band that are very handy with their craft techniques and they put the prizes together. We have like wicker baskets with the baskets all laid out really nicely. This year the raffle theme will be stepping into Christmas and each prize will represent a festive tune.”
It all comes on the back of Petworth Town Band's successful remembrance concert recently, a new venture for the band which went well, with the concert attracting more people than Martyn anticipated.
“Because of the attendance and because we've had such good feedback we are seriously considering making it an annual event as a Petworth remembrance, something that the community can really get involved with and something that the people of Petworth know is going to happen in November.”
The event raised more than £400 for the Royal British Legion.
Christmas concert admission: £12; bar and raffle open at 7pm.