On 18th December, the band were invited once again to provide the soundtrack to Ascot Racecourse’s Christmas Family Raceday. The Christmas Racing Weekend marks the final race meeting of the year and, as such, is always an event of celebration. As well as the races themselves, racegoers are invited to take part in a host of festive family-friendly activities, before coming together after the final race to sing carols in the grandstand.
All in all, it’s one of my favourite dates of the year.
Being a whole day event, the band met at around 10am to get ready to play. A cup of tea, a quick warm up, bowties on and it was go-time—we made our way to the grandstand. The racecourse grounds were already filling as people rushed to place bets, grab a hot choclate, or even meet a reindeer before the first race. By the time we’d set up and Kelvin raised his baton to bring us in with our first piece—Steve Sykes’ arrangement of Winter Wonderland—the hall was full of scarfed and mittened racegoers, fizzing with excitement.
For the rest of the morning and into the afternoon, we played sets of Christmas music between each race, waving at children with painted faces and snowflake deely boppers as they danced in front of the stage. Then, as the doors opened to allow everyone down to the course for the final race, we picked up our stands and instruments and hurried outside to the bandstand.
Normally, the carol concert takes place in the main grandstand but, due to COVID restrictions, it took place outside this year. The bandstand was lit up with fairylights as we set up, pulling gloves on and blowing into our mouthpieces to keep them warm. Then the race ended.
A flood of people came outside to take part in the carol singing, filling up the garden around the bandstand, the paths around the racecourse grounds and even the balconies of the grandstand behind us. Together with the Tootsie Rollers, we led everyone through a heartwarming program of festive favourites; from traditional carols such as O’ Come, All Ye Faithful to modern tunes like The Christmas Song. You can find videos of the carol singing on the Ascot Brass Facebook page.
And as the hundreds in the audience sang together, Ascot made it snow—well, they were really bubbles rather than snowflakes, but it was magical all the same.
When the carols ended and it was time to go, we put our instruments away, packed up our Christmas folders for another year and headed home, with frozen toes, slightly numb lips and full of Christmas cheer.