Water Village Band is proud to be part of this national initiative launched by Brass Bands England to help the many UK brass bands through the COVID-19 pandemic. Brass bands are a core of their local community, and many risk disappearing altogether without your help. 

Water Village Band has been a part of the villages of Water and Lumb, and the wider Rossendale Valley, for over 150 years, bringing music, enjoyment and fun to the community.

Our current bandroom was last updated in the 1970s and we want to modernise it to make the room more welcoming and improve its energy efficiency, saving us money as well as helping to save the planet. These improvements also mean that we can open up The Bandroom as an extra community facility in the villages of Water and Lumb.

Why are we crowdfunding?

We started this project a year ago by applying for a grant from The Lancashire Environmental Fund. Now we’ve received the great news that we've been awarded funding, but we will still have to provide £10,000 towards the cost of the work, and this will almost empty our bank account.

In normal times we would have made up this amount of money over a year of paid engagements and fundraising over the Christmas season. But, because of the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic, the band has not raised any money from our usual sources this year. Our playing and fundraising usually starts around Easter, so we have a long gap until we can hit the road again, even if COVID restrictions are lifted soon.

Your donations will be used to:

• contribute towards insulating the bandroom.
• upgrade the heating and lighting with energy efficient systems.
• replace our windows and external doors with A-grade energy efficient products.

This also means that we can offer The Bandroom space as two meeting rooms for use by the residents of the local area, helping give something back to our loyal community as well as raising income to meet future running costs.

Most of all we want to connect with our audience, so choose a Reward from the list on the right and enjoy some quality Water Village Band Rewards!

What happens if our grant doesn't come through? In that case we would use donations from this appeal to start the refurbishment work on a smaller scale.

About Water Village Band

Water Village Band is one of five 'village' brass bands in Rossendale. We started out in 1866 and have been a true village band ever since, without sponsors or ties to commercial companies. This is one reason why we have survived.

The membership is a diverse group of people ranging in age from eight to 85, long-term musicians and beginners. The players give up their own time for engagements and the twice weekly rehearsals.

We play at galas, church and village fetes, Christmas Lights switch-ons, and commercial events. December is our busiest time, playing at Christmas carol concerts and church services, playing in the village - even on Christmas Day -  and bringing festive cheer to local supermarkets. Sadly, it looks as though none of this can happen this year, but we do have some ideas on how to bring some of that cheer to the local area.

Rewards

Take a look at our 'rewards' on the right of this page and consider booking a small group (maybe four or six players) of Water Banders to play outside your house or workplace, or as a special Christmas gift at someone else's house. Or we can send you a specially recorded carol for you to play by your own Christmas fireside whenever you want cheering up.

However you choose to support us, we are grateful that you have read our Crowdfunder page - please pass it on and help spread the word for us - and we thank you in advance for your donation. We wish you a Happy Christmas and let's hope that we can all meet again in our refurbished bandroom, and in happier circumstances, in 2021.

Thankyou from Water Village Band.

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 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, share this page widely and do what you can to help us to make sure our Brass Bands survive this crisis.