After the resounding success of the Waterlooville Music Festival last year, with the special programme celebrating Waterloo 200 highlighted by the nationally famous and renowned Royal Marines Association Concert Band, four sold out concerts and thousands of visitors, how to begin to match the same standard in 2016 seemed an impossible task.
So congratulations to the Festival Programming Committee for facing the challenge and coming up with an incredible programme this year that sold out on six evenings breaking all records!
So much of such high quality, but perhaps the most memorable moments were:
the opening Saturday evening capturing the atmosphere of 1940’s war-time Britain, dancing to The Langstone Big Band (and there were some really talented dancers on the dance floor which greatly added to the spectacle), then concluding with huge nostalgia as Jill Langford sang Wartime favourites including Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Again.
Wednesday evening with The Hampshire Police Male Voice Choir and Quintiessential Brass - concluding with Choir and Brass performing an absolutely thrilling rendition of American Trilogy.
Thursday evening with The Octaves. If you missed this, sorry you really did miss out big time! The Festival publicity quoted many reviews and it was obvious they were going to be very good, but this male harmony group completely exceeded all expectations. Right from the start they established a strong rapport with the audience and delivered a totally professional act musically and visually. Most of the reviews had used the word ‘amazing’ and this was spot on… Their visit to the festival was squeezed in to a busy schedule, performing on P&O Oceana immediately before and flying in from Genoa to be at the festival, then the following week they joined P&O Ventura and then on to Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth. If you didn’t get to see them, probably the best way now to see what you missed out on is to book a cruise! A bit more expensive than the five pound Waterlooville Music Festival ticket….
Friday evening brought the now traditional Party Night with a wide variety of fifties to eighties favourites from The Foreverly Brothers.
And Saturday lunchtime, a free concert in the Church grounds from Hampshire’s top Ukulele Band Strumdiddlyumptious went down a storm.
And finally the hugely popular Last Night of the Proms - tickets sold out within 3 weeks of release, as more and more people realise what a great evening this is.
So all over for another year. The Festival Programming Committee really do have their work cut out to match such a fantastic week for next year!
To secure your tickets for the popular evenings that sell out (especially Last Night of the Proms with tickets gone in a matter of days this year) it is strongly recommended that you get in early. Tickets go on sale at the website on Wednesday 1st February 2017 and will be available at the Church Hall from Sunday 5th February 2017 after the 10am service. They will also be available during the month of February 2017 at our usual retail box offices - AllMobility Waterlooville, Keys News Highfield Parade, and Thistle Wool Shop Cowplain. There will be early bird discounts on offer too! To be the first to learn about the 2017 programme, and be reminded of ticket release dates, join the mailing list at
www.waterloovillemusicfestival.org.uk/mailinglist
