May 23, 2005 ­ The Brass Band Festival Planning Committee is pleased to announce the final line-up for the 8th Annual Brass Band Festival slated for June 9-12 in Historic Gettysburg, PA. The four-day festival will kick off Thursday evening at 6 with the Millersville University Brass Quintet performing on Lincoln Square and "Community Band Night" at 6:30 at the Gettysburg Recreation Park. The event will feature free performances throughout town Friday through Sunday. A paid "Drum Corps Spectacular" will take place Saturday evening beginning at 5 PM at the Gettysburg College Stadium.

Tickets for Saturday evening’s performance are $8 in advance, $10 at the door and $12 for reserved seating. Information and tickets are available at several locations in Gettysburg. Ticket locations include the American Civil War Museum, Days Inn, Gettysburg-Adams Chamber of Commerce, and the Gettysburg Village. The Hanover Area Chamber of Commerce, Main Street Gettysburg, The Rupp House and T&S Gifts and Mementos will also have tickets on sale. You can also order by mail from: Linda Gebhart, Gettysburg Village, 1863 Gettysburg Village Drive, Management Office, Gettysburg, PA 17325. You can reach Linda by calling 717-337-9705 ext. 103.

Thursday’s "Community Band Night" will be held at the Gettysburg Recreational Park on Long Lane, just behind the Gettysburg Hospital. The free, public event will begin at 6:30 with a performance by the Conewago Community Band from New Oxford. Guests will also hear music from the Apple Core Band from Biglerville and the Littlestown Area Municipal Band. All three are local Adams County bands.

Beginning at 7 PM, The Dobbin House will feature The Slide Show Trombones, a fun quartet from Chambersburg, PA. The Market Street Brass Band from Frederick, MD will also give a 7 PM performance on the Lincoln Square. Myersville, MD’s Harmony Cornet Band will also be performing at 7 PM, traveling throughout town on their bandwagon before stopping on the Lincoln Square for an 8 PM performance. A performance by the Gettysburg Brassworks will follow at 8:30.

A full day of music is offered throughout Gettysburg on Saturday, June 11 beginning with a 10 AM performance at the Alumni Park, Baltimore Street. Greenwood Brass, a community band from Millerstown, PA will perform first. At 11 AM, the Benfield Brass Band, a British-style brass band from Annapolis, MD, will perform. The Rockville Brass Band from Maryland will perform at noon. There will also be a 1 PM performance at Alumni Park by the Spires Brass Band, a British-style brass band from Frederick, MD, followed by Newberry’s Victorian Cornet Band performing Post-Civil War era brass band music at 2 PM. The Spires Brass Band is NABBA Champions.

The Wildcat Regiment Band from Indiana, PA will offer a workshop at the Gettysburg National Military Park Cyclorama Center on Taneytown Road at 10 AM followed by an 11 AM performance of Civil War period music. The Wildcat Regiment will perform again at 4 PM at the Cyclorama. One PM and 3 PM performances by the Coburn Brass, a quintet specializing in Civil War era music, will be held at the American Civil War Museum. At 2 PM, the Chambersburg’s Capitol Dixieland Band will play in the Gazebo at the Gettysburg Village, located on Routes 15 and 97, at 1863 Gettysburg Village Drive in Gettysburg, PA.

Gates at Shirk Field, Gettysburg College Stadium will open for the Drum Corps Spectacular at 3:30 PM for the 5 PM event. The evening begins with local drum corps favorite, Hanover Lancers. The Old Guard Fife & Drum Corps will parade in uniforms patterned after those worn by musicians of our Continental Army. World-class drum corps, The Crossmen, will also perform. The Cadets, the world champion drum corps, will close out the show Saturday evening.

Enjoy an entire weekend of Brass Band music with three performances by the Federal City Brass Band on Sunday, June 12. The Civil War period band from Baltimore, MD will perform at the Episcopal Church beginning at 10:15 AM followed by a 1 PM performance at the Rupp House. The Bands final performance of the day will take place at 3 PM at the American Civil War Museum.

Close out your weekend with a Community Picnic at the Gettysburg Recreation Park from 5 ­ 8 PM. The concert is free and open to the public. Performing at the Picnic will be local bands "a Gettysburg Brass Band" and the Apple Museum Dance Band. The Tarnished Six, from Lewistown, PA, will be on hand performing Dixieland at its best. A hot dog bar will be on site from The Doghouse offering a variety of dogs, burgers and sides. Bring your own blankets and lawn chairs or reserve a picnic table for $35.

Musical performances are made possible through sponsorships by Adams County Music Educators, Adams Electric, The Gettysburg Hotel, Gettysburg Village, The Hilton Garden Inn, The Littlestown Car Wash, Menchey Music, the Pub, the Quality Inn Gettysburg Motor Lodge, Dr. Shah Satish, and Schindler Elevator. Main Street Gettysburg, the Gettysburg National Park Service, T&S Gifts and Mementos, Times & News Publishing Company, and Gettysburg College work cooperatively to make the 8th Annual Gettysburg Brass Band Festival possible. The Gettysburg Convention & Visitors Bureau, Friends of the National Parks at Gettysburg, Adams Electric Cooperative, Inc., Schindler, and the American Civil War Museum also sponsored the Festival. Roaring Springs Water will provide water for the bands while Central Coca-Cola of York, PA, has donated product for the community picnic.

The Gettysburg Brass Band Festival concert series is made possible by grants from the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts (PPA) program, a partnership initiative between local arts organizations and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA), a state agency, and from the STAR grant program, developed by the Adams County Arts Council and funded by then PCA, the Adams County Commissioners, and the Borough of Gettysburg. State government funds for the arts come through an annual appropriation by Pennsylvania’s General Assembly and from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. The Chambersburg Area Council for the arts administers PPA in this region.