What is a Festival without a Marching Band?

Marching bands have grown on me. They hold a fascination for young and old alike and I think that fascination has bit by bit, infected me also.

I didn’t always feel so positive towards them. In fact there was a time I agreed whole heartedly with this quote from Sir Thomas Beecham (1879 – 1961)

Brass bands are all very well in their place – outdoors and several miles away.

But as I’ve said they’ve grown on me. They’ve grown on me so much that I almost went to the Festival Internazionale di Bande Musicali XI Edizione Giulianova back in May. The only thing that stopped me was the Cantine Aperte weekend, which clashed with Giulianova’s marching band competition. What could I do? There are so many cantine and so little time! Next year the festival in Giulianova is on from 2nd to 5th June maybe I’ll get there in 2011.

But time spent in Abruzzo is rarely a marching band free zone. On 24th May a band spent the day in Loreto Aprutino as part of the San Zopito festival. The band came from Ailano in Campania and made the 3 hour journey to Loreto Aprutino to help keep the locals, and anyone else that visited, entertained on the last day of the Festa di San Zopito.

My first real life encounter with an Italian marching band was in Cepagatti (PE) in 2007. We were on the road from Chieti (CH) to Penne (PE) and out came a traffic policeman with his hand raised for us to stop.

This was a potentially traumatic moment! It was our first time driving in Italy, trying to understand unfamiliar road signs and getting used to being on the other side of the road. Not really knowing where we were going, trying to do a crash course in map reading, attempting to avoid motorways – all these elements added up to us having broken some rule and we were about to have an Italian-English conversation that was going to be difficult.

After waiting a moment we heard the sound; a marching band was walking through the town helping to commemorate an important feast day in the town’s calendar. We’d been asked to stop to give them a chance to do their job. Once they passed we were off the hook and could continue to on our desperate journey to find our destination.

For this year’s Festa di San Zopito the band from Ailano, or to give its full title Storico Gran Concerto Banistico Cittá di Ailano, was fantastic. Under the guiding hand of Nicola Hansalik Samale (Maestro Direttore Concertatore) it delivered all day long.

It started around 08:30 when the musicians made their way through the streets to the town monument and played a salute. Later they changed their uniform and played as the relics of San Zopito passed through the town. But it was later still, at around 21:00 that they really came into their own. With Il Maestro Nicola Hansalik Samale in change they treated their audience to some bitter-sweet music by Puccini.

We all sat around the temporary bandstand in Piazza Garibaldi and listened as this wonderful band from Ailano filled the air with gorgeous sounds from one of Italy’s best composers. During the day the band had made a journey in style from military marches, to songs of praise and then finally to opera. As I sat there in the warm May night I was amazed at their skill, talent and stamina to be able deliver such a wonderful performance having started it all twelve hours earlier.

The San Zopito festival in Loreto Aprutino this year was wonderful, and on Monday 24 May the Storico Gran Concerto Banistico Cittá di Ailano helped ensure it ended in style.

Bravi!

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