Town Band marches on to Holland

Mullingar Town Band will compete in the world"s largest band competition this July - in the company of 19,000 musicians from across the globe.The band, currently in preparation for the competition which will take place at Kerkrade"s massive stadium in Southern Holland, was awarded €500 by Mullingar Credit Union at the branch"s annual charity donation night at the Parish Centre on Cathedral Street last night (Monday). The money will be used towards travel costs for the competition.While the band has travelled to Holland in previous years this will be the first time that they will be competing for a prize. Mullingar Town Band last travelled to Purmerande in Holland in 2002 when the Celtic Crusaders performed in the Festival of Marching Bands and were commended with a gold award for their performance.'The competition has been postponed a few times in the last number of years,' said band leader Hubert McGee who is credited with the band"s great success.'We are of course excited about the trip and the competition. The previous trips that we made to Holland were about taking part in the competition and while were adjudicated it wasn"t in the prize winning section but this year we will be competing.'The band should stand a good chance of bringing medals back to Mullingar, having previously won gold medals in the Open European championships as well as winning the All Ireland titles in both the concert and field band categories.The competition starts on July 16 through to July 23. Fans can follow the countdown to the trip on http://www.bebo.com/mullingartownband which also has listings for the band"s summer performance schedule.