Come and Play Day for Wind Band – Welcome!

Saturday 20th September 2025, 10.15am – 5pm at Dunblane Cathedral Halls

We at Dunblane BB Band are looking forward to welcoming you to this special event, part of our BB company’s 125th anniversary celebrations this year.

Instead of just celebrating by ourselves after 125 years of BB in our town, we wanted to plan a few events for the wider community and this day for wind band players is one of them.

We have invited Alistair Gibson, one of Scotland’s finest young wind band and brass band conductors to come along and lead an exciting and fun programme of wind band music for young people and adults. We recommend the day for players with at least two years’ experience on their instrument.

Programme
We’ll start at 10.15am, giving you time to get a lift or catch a bus/train from wherever you live. There’ll be breaks throughout the day and a tuck shop will run with drinks and snacks on sale (cash or card).

There’ll be a lunch break so please bring along a packed lunch or some money to try your luck at the nearby butchers (good pies), Greens convenience store or a couple of cafes (we suggest ordering in advance if you’re doing that!) We’ll provide juice and water throughout the day.

When our rehearsals finish at 4pm, we’ll head over to the Cathedral itself and set up for a short concert at 4.30pm, when parents, family, friends and the community are encouraged to come and listen. Finish time is 5pm.

What do I need to bring?
If you have a music stand, it would be great if you could bring it with you, but don’t worry if you haven’t, as we have a good few here and we’ll share one between two anyway. Please remember any supplies for your instrument such as valve oil, reeds, cork/slide grease, etc. Percussionists, if you could bring any sticks you have, this would be handy, too, but, again don’t worry if there’s something you need to borrow. We’ll provide all the percussion instruments!

This is a casual-clothes event for everyone. Please wear whatever you’re comfortable in!

What music will we be playing?
Alistair Gibson has selected five exciting, accessible and also suitably challenging pieces, some of which will be familiar and others new (some are brand-new, only published this year!) You can look forward to playing

Prismatic Light by Alan Fernie
Fanfare for the Third Planet by Richard L. Saucedo
Rippling Watercolours by Brian Balmages
The Lion King Medley arranged by John Higgins
First Suite in E Flat by Gustav Holst

Sounds good fun! How do I sign up?
If you are under 16, please ask a parent or carer to sign you up using our Google Form (that’s a link you can click) using the parent/carer’s email address for contact. If you are 16 or over, you can sign yourself up with the same form.

We ask for a small donation of £5 per participant, only if you’re able to do so. We’ll email you a link you can use to donate online or you can bring a fiver on the day. Please don’t let this prevent you coming. It’s a voluntary donation!

Once you have signed up, we might get in touch to ask a little bit more about which parts (or instruments if you have more than one) you would be most comfortable playing.

How do I get to Dunblane (the venue)?
Dunblane Cathedral Hall is right next to the Cathedral itself and the postcode is FK15 0AQ. It’s just a five-minute walk from both Dunblane railway station and the coach stop at the Police Station where Ember, Citylink and Docherty’s have services stopping. We’ve encourage the use of public transport and the timing of the day’s events have been set around these. We have suggested a few bus and train times below for you.

Morning
Ember bus, dep. Perth Broxden P&R 09.23, dep. Auchterarder (A9) 09.41, dep. Greenloaning 09.49 arrives Dunblane 09.58.
Ember bus, dep. Glasgow (Buchanan St) 08.55, Cumbernauld 09.13, Stirling P&R 09.33, arrives Dunblane 09.40
Train dep. Dundee 09.15, Perth 09.41, arr. Dunblane 10.08
Train dep. Glasgow 09.08, arr. Dunblane 09.45
Train dep. Edinburgh Waverley 09.07, Falkirk Grahamston 09.41, Stirling 09.58, arr. Dunblane 10.06.

Evening return
Ember bus, dep Dunblane 17.38, arr. Greenloaning 17.47 Auchterarder (A9) 17.55 and Perth Broxden 18.10
Ember bus, dep Dunblane 17.56, arr. Stirling P&R 18.04, Cumbernauld 18.21, Glasgow (BBS) 18.42
Train dep Dunblane 17.48 to Perth arr. 18.19 and Dundee 18.58
Train dep Dunblane 17.15 to Stirling arr. 17.24, Glasgow QS 17.58
Train dep Dunblane 17.25 to Stirling arr. 17.32, Falkirk 17.49 and Edinburgh Waverley 18.30

Who will be the adults in charge at the event?
All adults assisting at the event will wear a Boys’ Brigade polo shirt and they have a current enhanced membership of the PVG scheme through Disclosure Scotland and The Boys’ Brigade. Alistair Gibson is PVG-checked through the Big Noise music programme, Loretto School and Kingdom Brass.
The event is open to adults as well as young people, however, and there will likely be members of the public using other meeting rooms within the Cathedral Halls on the day, so you should be aware of this.
If a young person has a concern they wish to speak to an adult about on the day, we will remind them to speak to an identifiable leader wearing a BB polo shirt. This event is covered by public liability insurance of The Boys’ Brigade.

If you have any questions we haven’t answer here, please get in touch. You can email Fraser Boyd using captain@dunblanebb.org.uk.