Mullingar Town Band welcome musician visitors from Germany

Mullingar Town Band are busy getting ready for this year’s St Patrick’s festivities. Preparations began in January and have included choosing, learning and rehearsing a music programme, marching training, from indoor basics to outdoor parading on Sunday mornings in the Mullingar Business Park, and uniform fittings and repair.

Marching with the band this year will be a combination of new members whose first parade should have been St Patrick’s Day 2020, but that was cancelled due to Covid, new recruits who were upgraded since the start of the pandemic and adult ‘returnees’ to the band who joined the new Community Adult Concert Band but decided to take on the challenge of marching band for the year. For some members, it has been between 35 and 40 years since they marched a parade with Mullingar Town Band.

This year, the band are honoured to have been invited to parade in the Dublin St Patrick’s Day parade and to be representing Mullingar and Westmeath in the marching band category, especially as this is the return of celebrations for the national holiday since Covid hit Irish shores.

Mullingar Town Band will also be marching in the Celbridge parade and will then hurry back to Westmeath to take part in the St Patrick’s festivities in Castlepollard that evening, albeit a little late perhaps.

Mullingar Town Band are looking forward to taking part in all three parades and are delighted to be able to finish the day in Westmeath to entertain a local audience. Officials working on all three parade committees have worked hard to accommodate MTB and their tight schedule on the day.

Following St Patrick’s Day, MTB will travel to Limerick on Sunday 20 March to take part in the International Marching Band Championships.

Following the marching competition, band members have the opportunity to meet fellow bands and take the time to have some fun playing their favourite songs to entertain each other at Arthurs Quay while waiting for judges’ results.

Mullingar Town Band are excited to be welcoming their band friends from Rastede, Germany, ‘Spirit of 52’, to Mullingar from Saturday 12 March to Friday 18 March, organised by Spirit of 52 chairperson Carsten Helms and vice-chairperson Christian Zellmer.

The connection between Mullingar Town Band and Spirit of 52 came about when Mullingar Town Band travelled to Rastede in 2017 to the World Music Contest and were kindly assisted throughout their stay by the management of Spirit of 52.

Mullingar band director Kim Magee said that both she and the band members are delighted to have Spirit of 52 come to Mullingar. “Spirit of 52 are one of the leading marching showbands in the European competition scene and it is such a wonderful opportunity to be able to rehearse with them and perform alongside them during their stay in Ireland,” said Kim.

Spirit of 52 will also be marching in the Dublin, Celbridge and Castlepollard parade with Mullingar Town Band,

Performance On Tuesday 15 March 7pm in Mullingar

To mark this special visit, both Mullingar Town Band and Spirit of 52 will perform a short parade and performance on Tuesday 15 March in Mullingar at 7pm.

It is planned that the two bands will do a short parade from The Newbury Hotel to The Market Square, where they will meet the junior members of Mullingar Town Band, ‘The Bandroom Music Programme’, who will do a short performance of Bucket Drumming and Colourguard, followed by MTB and Spirit of 52 doing a 20/30minute music programme until approx 8/8.15pm. (Performance location may change due to inclement weather; please consult MTB Facebook for updates).

Thank-yous

Kim would like to congratulate the band training team who assisted in training the band for the first big outing in three years; Adrienne Syron, assistant band director, Hilary McKeon. Colourguard instructor, Ellie Syron, Marching Band assistant, Greg Dunne and Aidan Magee, percussion tutors, and the band committee on overseeing uniform fittings and organising preparations for the visit of Spirit of 52 led by Helen Henry, Therese O’Connor and Brendan Hoye.

Spirit of 52

Spirit of 52, a department of Showband Rastede from Germany, are looking forward to their first visit to Ireland. “We can’t wait to arrive to Mullingar and meet with our friends from the MTB, who visited Rastede in 2017,” said chairman Carsten Helms. “All of them have been so kind and helped us developing this journey, we couldn’t thank them enough.”

“As our band is from a non-profit organisation, just like MTB is, without the support of our friends we couldn’t afford this trip,” said Christian Zellmer, vice-chairman of Showband Rastede.

The plans has been started in October 2021 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Showband Rastede organisation with the participation in the St Patrick’s Parade in Dublin.

The programme grew as the more than 40 German band members will now also perform in Mullingar and other towns. Also there will be a workshop for musicians and Colourguards in Mullingar on Sunday 13 March.

“Like that wasn’t enough, the committee of MTB announced some surprises for the guests, starting with a bowling-evening on the day of the arrival. Mit musikalischen Grüßen.”