HOME FARM FEST 2016: Wessex Big Band hits the right note with festival-goers

THE Wessex Big Band got the party started today (Sunday, June 12, 2016) on the final day of this year’s charity Home Farm Festival near Yeovil.

With nearly 100 groups and singers performing over the weekend during the festival at Home Farm in Chilthorne Domer – it is doubtful that many of the fest-goers would have predicted a band which was formed 40 years ago as being one of the surprise hits of the concert.

But the Wessex Big Band certainly brought the Dutch Barn stage alive this morning when they were first to perform at 11am and the great music got people up dancing at the festival which is held annually in aid of the Piers Simon Appeal and its School in a Bag initiative.

The School in a Bag project has come about from the Piers Simon Appeal which was formed soon after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami in which hundreds of thousands of people were killed including former Preston School and Yeovil College student Piers Simon. The SIAB initiative sees schoolbags filled with everyday education items such as pens, pencils and paper – plus eating utensils – and are sent out to poor and orphaned children around the globe.

PHOTO - TOP: Wessex Big Band's musical director and founder Alan Brown.

PHOTO - RIGHT: Members of Wessex Big Band in action today at Home Farm Fest.

It was apt that the Wessex Big Band made its Home Farm Festival debut today with the group being led by musical director and founder Alan Brown, a former Preston School teacher, who was awarded the British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list two years ago in 2014 for services to music.

The band started life as the Preston Youth Big Band in 1976 given Mr Brown’s association with Preston School. But ten years later it grew up from being a youth band and changed its name to the Wessex Big Band.

The band’s website states: “The band was formed by its musical director Alan Brown who, despite his thinning hair, still leads the band today.

“Alan has a real passion for the music of the big band and his enthusiasm and drive have inspired countless local musicians of all abilities to take part and perform with the band.”

Although Mr Brown has been recognised by the Queen for his musical achievements, he will be remembered well by thousands of former students of Preston School in Yeovil.

And he mentioned them today at Home Farm where he said it was great to see many “former Preston pupils.”

To which someone in the crowd shouted “Browner” – in reference to how he was referred to by pupils at Preston.

Mr Brown said that he and the band had loved playing at the Home Farm Festival and thanked everyone for listening – and dancing!

“It really has been great,” he said.

More photos of the Wessex Big Band’s performance at Home Farm Festival can be found here on this link: http://www.yeovilpress.co.uk/blog/2016/06/12/home-farm-fest-2016-day-3-pt-1-june-12-2016/ .

PHOTO - ABOVE: Dancing away to the sounds of the Wessex Big Band at Home Farm Festival 2016.

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