The Contesting Conundrum: Is It Time for Change?

How Can We Evolve Brass Band Contests for the Modern Age?

Progress. Charles Darwin said it best: in order to survive, you must adapt and evolve. He’s right. Whether we’re talking about penguins or brass bands, adaptation and evolution is vital to avoid extinction. 

In 1861, just eight years after the British Open came into existence, Enderby Jackson (the self-claimed founder of brass band contest) was already tired of the traditional format and tried to jazz things up to maintain audience numbers at brass band contests.. Although his idea of bands performing simultaneously across a field with random fireworks going off didn’t necessarily work, it shows that the question of evolving the brass band contest isn’t a new one. 

165 years later this question is starting to be asked with more urgency than ever before. Dwindling audience numbers at major contests, frustrated bandspeople and heated discussions on social media are the symptoms of a system that isn’t equipped for survival.

Is it a question of changing the format, changing how we promote the format or retiring contesting for a better alternative? That’s what we’re going to explore and I offer my proposal for a brass band contest that might just meet the needs outlined in this exploration. 

Unsustainable Business Model

The two main revenue streams for most of our events tend to be the competing bands paying a fee and banders who are not competing buying a ticket. This just isn’t sustainable. If you apply this model into a music festival outside of the banding world - like Glastonbury for example, it just wouldn’t work.

 Let’s see for ourselves:

• Organisers hire a field for music festival - they then have to figure out a way to recoup the costs

• Organisers approach a list of rock bands to perform and say they have to pay a fee to earn a spot on one of the stages on the field

• The bands (without whom the event wouldn’t happen) agree to pay, because they want the event to go ahead and understand that such events cost money

• Organisers then market the event to gather an audience, but instead of marketing it to the wider public, they market it to other rock bands who aren’t already performing

• It’s a small pool of people to market to and out of that small group only a few rock band members (who aren’t performing) buy a ticket

• Organisers realise they still haven’t recouped the costs, so turn round to the bands who ARE performing and have paid a fee for said performance and say ‘after you’ve played your performance you can go and watch the bands on other stages at the festival…but you have to pay a ticket to the festival you’ve paid to play in to watch the other bands.

It just doesn’t work does it?

So, the next question is, are we going to accept that we are essentially running most brass band contests for ourselves? If so, why? 

Although contesting does and should still make up the DNA of brass banding, have we made it such a priority that we’ve forgotten what the point of a band is? To make music. To ENTERTAIN. If we’re not attracting an audience to these events, we are not fulfilling that purpose. 

So, the next question is: where is the public?

Lack of Public Interest: Real or Perceived?

Is there really a lack of public interest or is this lack of interest assumed? Is this what’s encouraged us to just market it to ourselves?

Public interest does exist. Brass in Concert is testament to that. The hall is always full and it’s not just the banding world that attends. I think this is because the product on offer is entertainment first and competition second. The audience benefits from a variety of creatively curated programmes where bands try to ‘outdo’ each other, not just on the strength of their musical performance, but the quality and innovation shown in their programme. 

The band benefit from a full hall and the ability to compete, whilst the audience is simultaneously entertained. The fact that the bands are all top flight bands also encourages an audience because of the high standard and stature of the ensembles on the stage. 

However, in the lower levels, in my experience as a bander, the entertainment contest format still attracts more people into the audience than the set work. It ticks the boxes of both entertainment and competition.

In comparison, the test piece, particularly the ‘set test piece’ contest is a harder event to market. It’s an event filled with either the bands all playing the same work over and over again or a variety of pieces that, although we (the banders) understand the context of them as a ‘test piece’, the wider public isn’t privy to this context and for many people the music ‘lacks meaning.’ So, to sit and watch umpteen performances of the same piece or even a section of different pieces that you don’t really understand, because you don’t live in the banding world is a really difficult product to market. A pop concert, a musical theatre show, a movie at the cinema - there’s so much for the public to choose from - why would they choose this?

So what is the draw to the British Open then? It’s a set test contest - we’ve just outlined it’s a difficult one to sell, yet this contest is always well attended. I think the answer is that it offers the chance to hear the best bands perform. However, unlike Brass in Concert where there are quite a lot of non-banding people, who are general music fans rather than strict brass band fans,I think it’s safe to say for the British Open that it’s mostly banders who haven’t qualified and very strong brass band fans that make up the audience. It’s like community footballers and football fans will buy a ticket to the World Cup to watch the best teams battle it out, but are less likely to buy a ticket to a grassroots or community team match. 

If you stood in front of Symphony Hall and offered a random member of the public a ticket to the British Open or a ticket to a Musical Theatre show at the Birmingham Hippodrome, I would be willing to bet that they would take the latter option. But why? Both offer high quality performances. One is a full day’s investment into something quite niche nowadays, that the public doesn’t understand or even has a knowledge of and that lacks variety. The other is two hours of something within the public’s understanding and interest, tells a story and is far more marketable for those reasons.

Is this why we’ve pretty much given up on marketing our contests to the public. Are we assuming they’re not interested before we’ve even tried? As a Marketer and a Bander, I think the test piece contest is a particularly difficult sell. However, I can’t help but wonder whether it is lack of public interest or lack of public understanding that makes it difficult to draw an audience to our contests.

A Question of Marketing

Away from the banding sphere, marketing is my day job. The fundamental principle of marketing is understanding what your target market needs/wants. Understand that and you understand how to promote your service, product, event to that market. Fail to understand that, you fail to sell.

When it comes to marketing brass band contests, I don’t think it is simply a question of knowing what the public wants from a brass band contest. The bigger factor is that they don’t know what it is!  As a brass bander talking about my hobby in the workplace, I regularly have to explain how brass band contests work. So, like a true marketer, I did some market research to see if it’s just our community that’s suffering from this plight. 

Case Study: British Ice Skating

Torvill and Dean. Dancing on Ice. The Winter Olympics. Ice skating is a sport that has had its fair share of publicity. However, the 2026 British National Ice Skating Championships suffered similar audience attendance to band contests. 

Looking a bit deeper, despite accessible publicity in the media, when it comes to individual events, the scene reads a lot like our issue with banding. Reading the comments on this social media post about the event. they echoed a lot of comments made about brass band contesting:

• Lack of marketing, so the wider public and ice skating fans didn’t know it was on

• Lack of interest or context shared on social media to generate interest - people have to actively look for it

• Little to no outreach in local communities - local ice rinks, schools etc.

• An event where audience support reduces beyond the very top level performers

Are we assuming that the public are not interested, before we’ve even tried to promote it to them? Rather than simply posting information on social media aimed at other banders, have we explored:

• Promoting the event digitally on social media outside of the banding circle

• Educational articles and social media campaigns, circulated months before the competition outlining what the event is and its context in language that is aimed at the wider public

• Engaging with local and national press wherever possible (I know, it isn’t always easy!)

• Working with the local community - schools, music colleges, universities, music services - offering discounts, free tickets 

• Engaging with sponsorship from local businesses (again, outside of the banding circle) to increase fundraising efforts for the contest and to drum up local support

• Supporting individual bands to work with their own communities and followers to encourage them to attend the contest and support - could we offer a number of discounted tickets or a discount code for bands to share with their supporters

As it stands, I think there is more that can be done when it comes to marketing the event to the wider public. Explaining what it’s about. Providing the context. Tapping into any community spirit that can be found in both the local area of the contest and within the communities our bands reside in. 

But, in this author’s opinion, I’m not naive to the fact that with so many other entertainment options available to the public - the traditional brass band contest is still a pretty hard sell. 

So then we move on to the question of format. Is the test piece contest a marketable, sustainable event?

Time for a Change in Format?

Discussions surrounding brass band contests have regularly featured the argument of changing the rules and formats of contests like the Spring Festival and the Championship National Finals to have more bands of a ‘certain standard’ to ‘guarantee quality’ and encourage more people to attend. However, I feel this view is laced with elitism and not what the banding movement should stand for. 

If the public doesn’t really know how the brass band league tables work, do they really care what section you’re in? They’re more bothered about value for money and whether the ticket they’ve paid for has been value for money. 

Smaller contests, like the Red Admiral contest show that there is a public appetite to see bands that don’t sit in the ‘upper echelon’ of the brass band league table. We don’t need to make every contest like the British Open, otherwise what is there for bands sitting in the lower sections to aspire to? There are plenty of bands working towards their time in the sun on bigger stages, so why should these opportunities be gatekept?

There’s also a solid argument for getting rid of contesting all together and encouraging bands to focus their time on concerts and showcase events. The full halls at the RNCM Festival of Brass show that there is definitely an interest for large-scale brass band showcase events. However, contesting is part of the brass band DNA. The British Open in 1853 followed by John Gladney setting the formalised ‘contest band setup’ in 1871 were the factors that birthed the banding community we know today. To get rid of it would turn many musicians off the movement and I certainly think contesting has its place.

We’ve outlined that these events need to balance both the competitive and entertaining elements in order to attract both bands and audiences. The current ‘set-work’ format just doesn’t do this. Even in the hall at the Europeans, there were bands who were playing to a number of empty seats. I think if we want to open our doors to the wider public, we have to open our collective minds to change. Playing an active part within the banding community that is so steeped in heritage and musical history, I understand that this change comes with apprehension. I’m proud of where we’ve come from, but I know we need to start looking with conviction on where we are going. 

A Proposal

Let’s pretend that I wasn’t a flugel player for Rainford Band with a little music publication, and for one day only, I was handed the ‘Decision-Maker’ badge for British brass banding and I got to choose the format for a major contest. This is what I would do.

The Venue

Requirements: 

• Central location within with plenty of amenities near by

• Multiple performance spaces within the venue to support multiple sections in one day 

• Changing facilities that have accessibility to a toilet and/or area to enable privacy for walking outs that require more than a change in jacket and to prevent minors being exposed to adults changing

• A central ‘hub’ within the venue to encourage socialising

• Equipped for musical performances

If I was in charge and it was possible, my venue choice would be the Royal Northern College of Music, just from experience performing and spectating at the RNCM Brass Band Festival.

The Format:

A variation that still allows for a major work to be featured, but still balances variety and entertainment for wider audiences.

Format:

A 20 minute programme featuring:

• Own choice major work - no more than 10 minutes - programme. 

• Solo performance - no more than 5 mins

• March - no more than 5 mins

My thoughts around this format is that bands across every section, from youth to championship will have had experience playing a longer work (concert/contest), a solo (concert/contest) and a march (Whit Friday/Hymn & March contests). 

I know the time limit on the major work would vastly reduce the amount of options, but there are ‘major works’ or longer pieces for band that were never intended to be test pieces. It would also make works chosen for contests more accessible to a more diverse group of composers who haven’t written a typical test piece yet, but still have the talent and skills to write a longer, more intricate work for brass band. 

Most entertainment contests allow a slot of 20 mins, so we know that format works. Rather than the MD having to stop and explain each piece. The contest programme booklet outlines the story arc or how the performance relates to the theme and the compère will summarise the context of each piece at the beginning of the performance, whilst the adjudicators warm up their whistle. 

“What theme?”, you ask. 

Theme: Encouraging Entertainment & Attracting an Audience

Each programme has to have a theme. Now we could leave this up to the band’s to choose - or to replace the ‘set test piece’ the contest would have a ‘set theme’ for each section. 

We could look at historical milestones within that year, for example: this year marks David Attenborough’s 100th birthday so the theme would be Attenborough or nature and bands would have to find or commission music to fit this theme. You could pick a particular composer to feature or something in pop culture. This would also help when marketing the event because you could market it outside of the banding sphere and towards the public whose interests not only align with music, but with the theme of the contest.

This isn’t Brass in Concert. There’s no media. No choreography. We retain the main focus of the test piece contest, which is how the music is played. How creative the band can get with their choice of music and the standard of playing is what is on show here. 

Grading Criteria:

• Programme content - how well it suited the theme, creativity involved within the music choices, difficulty

• Technical standard - rhythm, intonation, dynamics tuning, etc.

• MD interpretation

• Quality of featured soloist

Funding 

The main sticking point is funding. Creating partnerships with educational bodies, such as conservatoires or other performance venues that have multiple performance spaces and facilities that support large-scale musical events would be key. Engaging with local and musical businesses to sponsor the event or to hire a trade stand within a central hub that all performers and audience members will need to walk through. Promotion of those businesses through logos shown on all marketing material in the months leading up to the contest. Sponsored prizes. Engaging with the local community, for donors, grants and government support and funding opportunities.  

Marketing

Starting it months in advance. If the contest is held in April, the marketing begins the Summer before. A video ad or social media post circulated explaining the contest, it’s premise etc. in layman’s terms circulated on:

• Organiser’s social channel, 

• Venue’s social channel and across community and relevant groups online. 

• Competing band’s social channels - assets/social media graphics, etc. sent to band secretaries

This would follow with a series of content leading up to the event, such as:

• Reminder ads with ticket prices and a summary of what the event offers

• ‘A word from our sponsors’ for each sponsor

• Trade stand spotlight - insights into which businesses are attending at the trade stands

• Content on the themes of the contests

• ‘Guess the pieces’ emoji or sneak preview content

• Interviews or videos sent in from competing bands about their experiences prepping for the contest

• Video insights from the adjudicator

• Quizzes or competitions for free tickets

Email marketing with early bird/education/charity/discounts to:

• Local schools, colleges and universities

• Music groups and clubs

• Any groups/organisations whose interests align with the theme in each section

Press and PR initiatives:

• Engagement with local press

• Engagement with banding press - multiple features across the marketing period, if possible

• Attempt to engage with national press - sell it not just as a contest, but a spectacle

• Invite key journalists from outside the banding world to attend the event and to review

• Invite music content creators from banding and beyond to cover the event on their social media

  
  

Not a perfect model, but is it a start?

Naturally, this isn’t the finished model. We don’t live in an ideal world, so there would be snags that would have to be ironed out. Also, this article is already lengthy, so I appreciate you getting to this point and didn’t want to bombard you with too much information! 

What do you think? Could the above model work? Would it balance the need to compete with regaining the purpose of entertaining the public to ensure they attend, as well as opening the doors for community outreach?

I might not have provided the perfect answer. But the question of how brass band contests evolve for the modern world is one that needs to have a definitive answer sooner rather than later. 

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