Entertainment contest is ready to welcome bands back to the Borders

Brass band contesting in Scotland makes a welcome return on Saturday 6 November when 13 bands take to the stage in the Scottish Borders Brass Band Association’s entertainment contest in the Buccleuch Centre in Langholm.

The contest is the first to be held in Scotland since the Scottish Championships in Perth in March 2020 and will be the first competitive outing since the beginning of the COVID pandemic for most bands.

This is the 19th Borders contest and members of the SBBBA committee have been working hard to ensure the event will run as smoothly as possible with the minimum of risk to the health and safety of players and audience.

The contest has a restricted entry to allow more space and time between bands and has used learnings from the National Championships of Great Britain when Langholm Band witnessed first-hand the steps taken by Kapitol Promotions to enable the competition to be held successfully.

The contest commences at 10.30am with the last band due on stage around 5pm and results expected about an hour later. Adjudicators for the day are John Doyle and Martin Armstrong and the compere will be Alasdair Hutton.  Entry to the contest is £5.00 payable on the door.

Each band will receive a written adjudication and a voice over adjudication with a recording of their performance which will be provided by Nigel Durno from Just Music.

Joining the hosts Langholm Town Band are Annan Town, Coalburn Intermediate, Hawick Saxhorn, Galashiels Town (non contesting), Irvine & Dreghorn, Jedforest Instrumental, Lochgelly, MacTaggart Scott Loanhead, NASUWT Concert, Peebles Burgh, Selkirk Silver and St Ronans Silver.