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Community band tunes up for concerts, parade, Canada Day

The Williams Lake Community Band is tuning up for their float in the Stampede Parade with several free concerts coming up.

The Williams Lake Community Band is tuning up for their float in the Stampede Parade with several free concerts coming up.

The band will perform on the Gwen Pharis Ringwood Amphitheatre stage in Boitanio Park Thursday, June 23 from 7 to 8 p.m.

Saturday, June, 25 they will be back in Boitanio Park in the morning to perform for the ALS Walk which starts from the park at 11 a.m. with registration at 10 a.m.

Then on July 1 the band will be back Boitanio Park for the annual Canada Day celebrations.

By then they will be all revved up to perform their last concert of the season riding in their Stampede Parade float on July 2.

After that, band member Margaret Waring says the band will take the summer off, regrouping again in the fall.

She says the 35- member band has arranged a selection of songs for their June concerts with many of them keyed to the particular event.

Visitors will hear a variety of songs at the various events such as a new Rodeo song they are working on, songs from Looney Tunes, Blue Ridge Saga, The RCMP March and other marches, Sentido, Cathedral Grove, Cotton Eyed Joe, Tailgate Ramble, songs from the opera Porgy and Bess to name a few.

In the Stampede Parade Waring says the community band is usually positioned near the front of the lineup because some of their band members jump off their float when they reach the finish line, and run around to the back of the parade to play with another group.