wellington Brass Band wins Australian championships

Wellington Brass Band has won the Australian National Brass Band Championships in Sydney bringing the trophy back across the ditch for the first time in a decade.

 

The Wellington Brass Band battled 15 other brass bands from Australia winning three of the four band events in the competition, with second place in the other.

 

The competition, held over four days at Easter, was the first time the Wellington band won the Australian championship titles. The win marked the first time in more than 10 years the Fireman's Helmet trophy would move across the Tasman and the first time in 20 years a New Zealand band would hold both the national championship titles.

 

The band spent six months fundraising to represent the city and country across the ditch, band manager Leighton Roberts said.

 

"It would have been terrible to have had another loss to Australia, we would have heard about it all night. We have a lot of young fellas in the band, students, and also more seasoned players, so to see them all step up and perform well, after all that hard work getting over there was simply fantastic," Roberts said.

 

The band will be performing at St Andrew's on The Terrace on May 9 starting at 7.30pm.