Field bands to do battle
ALEXANDRA - Field bands from the Field Band Foundation will battle it out for supremacy on 28 September.
The Alexandra Field Band will battle for supremacy at the annual Field Band National Championships at the Wanderers Stadium on 28 September.
A total of 14 bands which will include more than 1 700 young musicians will participate in the championships with the goal of being named the best field band of the year. The competition is sponsored by the Department of Arts and Culture.
The Field Band Foundation’s slogan for this year is, Music for Life, which is fitting, since for the past 16 years this multi-award-winning initiative has been creating opportunities for young people from disadvantaged communities to develop life-changing skills through the medium of music and dance.
The nine bands competing in the premier division of the championships hail from around the country, with four from Gauteng, two from Limpopo, one from the Northern Cape, one from the Eastern Cape and one from the Western Cape.
They are De Beers Blouberg Field Band (Blouberg, Limpopo), Black Like Me Soweto Field Band (Soweto, Johannesburg), De Beers PPC Cullinan Field Band (Cullinan, Pretoria), De Beers PPC Kimberley Field
Band (Kimberley), Black Like Me Mdantsane Field Band (East London), PFG Lonolusha Field Band (Springs, Gauteng), Alexandra Field Band (Alexandra, Johannesburg), De Beers Musina Field Band (Musina, Limpopo) and Cape Whaler Field Band (Cape Town).
In the first division, for bands that have been in existence for five years or less, there are four competitors. These are PPC Makana Grahamstown Field Band (Grahamstown, Eastern Cape), Anglo American Thabazimbi Field Band (Thabazimbi, Limpopo), Anglo American Tsantsabane Field Band (Postmasburg, Northern Cape) and Bafokeng Field Band (Bafokeng, North West).
There will also be a special guest performance by the Parys Field Band from the Free State.
The foundation is a Section 21 company that was established in 1997 to develop an indigenous variant of the global marching band concept in disadvantaged areas of South Africa.
