The Camborne Town Band was amongst several groups of performers chosen to represent Cornwall at this year’s Internal Celtic Festival. Cornwall and the Isle of Man were the featured Celtic nations at this year’s festival and had the privilege of leading the Grand Parade and performing in a Grand Concert at a 2000 seat Espace Marine Theatre.
The band departed from Camborne by coach just before lunch on Saturday 8th and after a 6 hour Brittany Ferries trip from Plymouth to Roscoff and another 3 hour coach journey arrived in Lorient in the early hours of Sunday.
Sunday started with a 6am call so that we could be ready for the start of the Grand Parade of Nations which featured 72 pipe bands, dancers and walkers in traditional costumes. The Rushen Band from the Isle of Man and Camborne were the only brass bands in the parade. The parade march took an hour and a half with festival goers queuing all along the route. The parade culminated with all performers entering the packed FC Lorient football stadium – all agreed that this was a fantastic experience.
The Camborne Band also performed a short concert in the afternoon and a 45min concert in the Cornish Stadium to an enthusiastic audience in the evening. The whole day was attended by approximately 70,000 people.
Monday saw a welcome later start with an afternoon parade of motorcycle and scooters. The noise and fumes from the enthusiastic bikes and scooters was a challenge for both Rushen and Camborne, but a welcomed change from the numerous pipe bands!!
The afternoon comprised some welcomed sightseeing and a sound check for the evenings Grand Concert featuring 6 acts from the Isle of Man and Cornwall. Both band’s gave short programmes and gave a massed performance of a new composition “ From Newlyn to Naribyl” by Rushen’s MD John Kinley.
Camborne’s MD Kevin Mackenzie stated “ This was certainly a great experience for the band, especially performing in 30 degree heat in full uniform!!! Hopefully we will return in the future”.
Camborne will now concentrate on their preparations for the National Finals in the Royal Albert Hall where they will perform Spiriti by Thomas Doss with their Musical Director Kevin Mackenzie.