21st - 22nd June 2024
The Event 2022 2023 |
2022
Back in 2022, City of Birmingham Brass Band member and servicing police officer, Phil Hadley, decided he wanted to combine his two passions, brass banding and policing, and had the crazy idea of bringing together a group of brass players from across the country to take part in the tenth anniversary year of Light the Lakes. The vision was to play some hymns in a cave, some more on top of a mountain in the middle of the night, and light some flares in memory of officers who had lost their lives serving their communities, and then play a concert at the family fun day the next day.
The vision became a reality and the Light the Lakes Massed Band was formed, consisting of players from eight bands from across the country. Music rang out from Rydal Cave and serenaded officers from Cambridgeshire Police who would be joining the band a little later as they scaled Loughrigg Fell.
We were blessed with good weather and were able to play again at atop the peak whilst the officers lit their flares at 3am. The band lit theirs a little later. It was a truly emotive experience for everyone involved.
Saturday saw players gather at Brathay Hall where they played a full concert of celebratory music featuring Phil as a soloist. The enthusiasm with which the band was received, across all elements of the event, was astounding.
We were absolutely delighted our contribution to this event saw us shortlisted for the Brass Band England “Brass Banding Event of the Year” award in 2023.
2023
Back by popular demand, and with a dream of taking an even bigger band and making even more of an impact.
The 2023 Light the Lakes Massed Band saw 50 musicians representing 21 different bands join forces with spectacular results. The sound in the cave was incredible as we were almost double in size from last year and featured a full bass section. We played to an enormous crowd of walkers who gathered inside the cave as we performed pieces such as The Irish Blessing and The Ashoken Farewell.
Despite the event being preceded by a prolonged period of very dry weather, leading to the replacement of flares with blue glow sticks at this year’s events, the weather on the day was wet and unfavourable, leading us to be unsure until very late in the day as to whether or not we would be able to climb over night. Thankfully by the evening we were faced with mild drizzle rather than heavy rain and a good proportion of the band made it to the top. Hats off to the Bb bass player, two Eb bass players and everyone who helped them for getting those enormous instruments up and down Loughrigg!
We shared Loughrigg with the Speakman party this year who were climbing in memory of Don and Jonny Speakman, father and son, both of whom were police officers. During communication with the family we were made aware that they were big Queen fans so we surprised them with a performance of Crazy Little Thing Called Love during our over night set on the peak.
We carried the Queen theme through to our Saturday concert including a number of classic Queen tunes in our programme. The weather held for us and were delighted to have another opportunity to entertain such a large an appreciative audience.
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