Brass Band Festival

This past Saturday (June 7) was the Ashland Brass Band Festival.  There were only three bands this year but it was a nice concert.  It is held in Ashland City Park.  Central Ohio Brass Band of the Columbus area and Chapel Brass from northern Ohio were the other bands.  It was a great day but was horribly hot.  The poor musicians couldn't keep their mouthpieces in place because of so much sweat running down their upper lips.   Gary is the director for the local band, The Brass Band of the Tri-State.  The band does several concerts each year and competes in the North American Brass Band Association Championship each year.  The band has placed first in the last three years of competition.

This is the Brass Band of the Tri-State playing.

Gary on stage before the band began their portion of the program.  Randy Yohe from WSAZ-TV was the announcer and he was announcing the band.

In addition to it being band day, it was mine and Gary's 40th wedding anniversary on Saturday.  Before the Brass Band of the Tri-State played, Gary had the announcer read something he had written and presented me this bouquet of roses.  Of course, I had to go to the stage and pick up my roses -- if you know me very well, you know that I would rather walk on live hot coals than to walk in front of people but the thought was sweet and I appreciated Gary making the day special.  You can see the band playing in the top of the picture.

Ben and Mommy seemed to be having a good time!

We had a front row seat on our blankets.  The only problem with blanket seats is Nana trying to get up on her feet.  It wasn't always a pretty sight!

Anna Kate seemed to have a good time except for the occasional ant that thought it could crawl on our blanket - she only screamed two or three times and especially loud when one little "tiny" ant decided to crawl on her big toe!

After playing on the playground in the park and listening to a little music, Ben needed to take a rest and eat a few Goldfish.