This was the first ever National final contest I have ever performed in after we won the Areas back in March. It was a long day but very enjoyable.

In the rehearsal room beforehand there was a real positive buzz about the band even though we knew it could be a long day ahead of us.

Cheltenham racecourse was a lovely venue to be at. I enjoyed looking around the trade stands - especially the percussion stands! I managed to get two new pairs of drum sticks out of it!

When it was our turn to enter the contest hall and onto the stage I felt very nervous - what if I mucked up my triangle bit? In all seriousness though it was a surreal experience in the sense of it being enjoyable and yet very important to us as a band.

As a percussion section we were able to enter the stage first to set up the percussion how we wanted to and then I saw it! The thing I had never played before - the clash cymbals! I was nervous when I first picked them up but once I made the first smash of the cymbals I wondered why I had never played them before. They were so much fun! This was my favourite part of the contest!

The auditorium was huge - the largest place I have ever played in. I couldn’t see anything past the stage and couldn’t hear anything but my own part and section. All I knew was that I needed to follow our MD and I would be fine.

On the way home I was buzzing as I knew that I brought my A game onto the stage with me and I feel very lucky to have experienced my first ever national finals (one of many I hope) with such a lovely band.

Matt – Percussion with St Sebastian Wokingham Band


Cheltenham was not only my first national final contest, but also my first ever brass band contest! It was definitely quite different to anything I had done before - I was slightly perplexed at the 2 black tents in the middle of the auditorium (were the adjudicators actually witches?) and also the fact that all the 19 bands played the same piece (unfortunately, the adjudicators would actually know what my part was supposed to sound like!).

One of the great parts about being a percussionist is that we were able to get out on stage first (special shoutout to the whole percussion section for just being so fun to play with!). I have to admit, I think the most stressful part of the whole day was finally seeing the instruments that I would be playing - as a percussionist, you don’t have the same familiarity of your own instruments, and I was a bit concerned that suddenly I would break my xylophone mallets (I even had a dream the night before that I broke George’s £50 sticks…!)

That being said, walking onto the stage was unbelievable, and also followed by a sudden realisation that this is what all the months of work had been for, and just like that the 15 minutes were over! However, I think that shared experience of making music at such a high level is something I’ll carry with me forever.

It was amazing to get the opportunity to not only play with such talented musicians, but also to talk to such kind and welcoming people - I can imagine how boring the day would have been without everyone there, so thank you all for making it such an incredible and fun day…I hope to be back very soon!

Lizzie – Percussion with St Sebastian Wokingham Band