Please donate at www.crowdfunder.co.uk/readingband and share this page widely.
The Reading Spring Gardens Brass Band is part of a national initiative launched by Brass Bands England to save the many UK brass bands who are struggling to survive through the Covid-19 pandemic. Brass bands are a core of their local community, and many risk disappearing altogether without your help.
Founded in 1903, the band is one of Reading’s oldest musical institutions. It has remained a non-sponsored, community based musical organisation and continues to actively support and promote Reading both locally and wider afield.
Visit the band’s website at www.readingband.com where you can find out more about how the band has supported local charities such as the Sue Ryder Duchess of Kent Hospice and Reading Pride and others such as Sarcoma UK.
The band may have entertained you on your arrival to Reading Pride in 2019 or perhaps, you have enjoyed one of the many performances the band has given in Forbury Gardens on the bandstand.
Why are we crowdfunding?
The band is dedicated and committed to Reading, just as much as it is to providing new music-making opportunities and experiences for its members, young brass learners and audiences alike. Covid-19 restrictions will continue to impact the band for many months to come. This will result in a significant loss of income for the band and increased financial pressures.
Please support the band and help keep music-making and our cultural heritage in Reading alive.
With your generous support the band will play on!
More about the band
The band is regarded as one of the finest entertainment brass bands in Berkshire and are the current Oxfordshire & District Brass Band Association Entertainment Contest (Lower Sections) champions. The band’s members volunteer their time, but they do however, have a responsibility for ensuring that the organisation’s running costs such as storage space hire and insurance obligations are met. Any surplus is invested in the organisation to further its purpose through brass music education initiatives such as Watkins Brass and Reading Youth Band which both aim to inspire a new generation of brass musicians in Reading and the surrounding area.
About Save Our Brass Bands
Brass bands exist in every corner of the UK, with over 30,000 people of all ages and standards taking part in weekly activity – rehearsing, performing and providing entertainment for their local community.
But we risk losing this forever.
Brass Bands saw their main source of income disappear in an instant when they ceased being able to perform in March in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Months later, we still don’t know when normal performances will be able to take place. A significant loss in income over the Summer months, paired with necessary expenditure needed to make rehearsal spaces Covid-19 compliant means that many Brass Bands are in a perilous financial situation.
Without urgent support, we could lose our nation’s amazing Brass Bands. Please help us to make sure they survive this crisis and will be there to be enjoyed by future generations.
#SaveOurBrassBands
Please donate at www.crowdfunder.co.uk/readingband and share this page widely.
