Vale Park 2025
On Sunday 22nd June we performed our annual concert at Vale Park Bandstand, a wonderful venue with loads of atmosphere. The bandstand is surrounded by trees with the river Mersey as a backdrop. We were lucky or unlucky, depending on your point of view, with the weather. Following two weeks of heatwave the weather had taken a different turn and torrential rain was the forecast and, as soon as the baton came down, the rain started. However, it wasn’t as hard as forecast and was very intermittent. The audience there are a hardy bunch and had come prepared for wet weather with umbrellas and raincoats. The only person to suffer was our conductor whose back was exposed to the west wind and the rain.
Below are some pictures of the band taken at the concert. We need to thank 'The Friends of Vale Park' for most of these pictures.
We seem to very well organised as we set off on our first peice - The march Fort Drake.
A view over the band to the trees in the park.
Alas, whilst the band were mostly dry the wind was blowing the rain in from the west so our poor conductor ended up with a soggy back.
The hardy audience were well prepared with various pieces of equipment to shelter from the wind and rain. However most took to sheltering under the trees.
The band was well sheltered in the bandstand, we all moved further in and closer together. Which probably helped our playing.
We have to thank our first horn player, Lauren, for this picture as she came back too late for the first piece in the second half and used her time waiting to rejoin us to take some photos. I think she spent too much time in the cafe studying their excelent selection of ice creams.
Another view over the band showing another part of the audience sheltering under the trees.