The band has today competed in the Foden’s organised online Whit Friday competition as part of a two day event featuring 119 bands. We are delighted and proud to report that we achieved a 5th place result in our section of 25 competing bands and were 19th overall out of the 119 bands who took part in the event. Our performance of Imperial Echoes can be seen below. Our sincerest thanks go to our own Mark Bingham for his fantastic work in preparing the sound and video of our performance and of course to all our band members for taking part, despite not having played together for more than a year now, by recording their individual performances from home. Huge thanks also to all at Foden’s band for organising the event and the hard work of adjudications and of course to all the 119 entrants. Our congratulations also go to fellow N.I. Band 1st Old Boys on winning their section and to all bands who took part in the event overall whether winners or not. full results here

With consecutive cancellations in 2020 and 2021 of both the Saddleworth and Tameside Whit Friday competitions, it was revealed a number of the popular venues on both circuits may struggle to see a viable financial option to host and support their annual competitions from next year onwards.

Due to the success of our online alternative in 2020 which saw 90 bands from around the world performing to a global audience of over 30k, Foden’s have decided once again to host an online competition. The response has been fantastic with 119 bands from 13 different Countries submitting videos ahead of our broadcast from 4pm this Friday and Saturday (28th and 29th May)

With the evident financial strains placed on the organising committees of both events, Foden’s decided to launch an initiative in which each entering band could choose to support the Saddleworth & Tameside Whit Friday organisations with a suggested minimum donation of £5 per entry (with the option to donate as much or as little as bands feel capable). Presently the initiative has raised £1800 to help preserve the future of the in-person Whit Friday contests for years to come. 100% of the money raised will go directly to the organisations, split equally between Saddleworth and Tameside.

Each competing band will be placed in order with trophies being presented to the winning bands in each section courtesy of a number of sponsors, results will be announced following the final performance on Saturday.