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Major Brass Band Dates For Your Diary in 2025

Updated: 4 days ago

Everything You Need to Know About 2025’s Biggest Brass Band Events

I recently received a message from an overseas reader of the blog, who was looking for recommendations for brass band events to visit the UK to see. So, I thought I would go one better and create a whole page that outlines every major event in the banding calendar. Whether you’re a bander who’s looking to get your calendar’s marked with the key brass band dates for 2025 or you’re looking to book your tickets to listen to some great brass band music, here’s all the major key dates for 2025’s biggest brass band events.

Note: If you're looking at this list and are wondering were some contests are, e.g. Buxton, Rochdale, Red Admirals Entertainment etc. - there is another post coming with smaller contests around the country!

RNCM International Brass Band Festival

Date: Friday 24th - Sunday 26th January 2025

Venue: Royal Northern School of Music, Manchester

The annual RNCM International Brass Band Festival kicks the year off in style. This three-day event held at the Royal Northern College of Music offers the chance to hear the UK’s most successful brass bands, including Cory, Brighouse and Rastrick, Black Dyke and Foden’s, alongside the RNCM’s own brass bands and the USA’s first all-female brass band, Athena Brass Band. Find out everything you need to know about the 2025 RNCM International Brass Band Festival here.

Unibrass 2025

Date: Saturday 15th February 2024

Venue: Cardiff School of Music

Unibrass is a unique brass band contest that is organised specifically for university brass bands. It offers university-age brass band musicians the opportunity to compete and audience members a great day of fantastic music. The 2025 competition will be held at Cardiff University School of Music. The day’s event consists of two section contests - Unibrass Trophy and Unibrass Shield, followed by a gala concert from Llareggub Brass Band. In my experience it’s an incredible day/evening of music and socialising, especially for the younger generation of brass band musicians and enthusiasts!

2025 Regional Championships

For those not in the know, the Regional Championships are a set-work contest that offers the chance for bands competing across the 5 sections a chance to compete at their respective national finals contests in the Autumn of 2025. Each of the five sections is assigned a set work that all bands within that section have to play.

2025 Regional Test Pieces

Championship Section: Diversions by Derek Bourgeois

First Section: Introduction, Elegy and Caprice by Morley Calvert

Second Section: Friendly Takeover by Oliver Waespi

Third Section: Arkansas by Jacob de Haan

Fourth Section: I, Daedalus by Andrea Price

Dates & Locations

North West of England

Date: 23rd February 2025

Venue: Blackpool Winter Gardens

Yorkshire

Date: Saturday 1st - Sunday 2nd March 2025

Venue: Huddersfield Town Hall

Midlands

Date: Saturday 8th - Sunday 9th March & Saturday 15th March 2025

Venue: Civic Hall, Bedworth, Warwickshire

Scotland

Date: Saturday 8th - Sunday 9th March 2025

Venue: Perth Concert Hall

West of England

Date: Saturday 8th - Sunday 9th March 2025

Venue: Riviera International Conference Centre

Wales

Date: Saturday 15th - Sunday 16th March 2025

Venue: Brangwyn Hall

London & Southern Counties

Date: Saturday 15th - Sunday 16th March 2025

Venue: Stevenage Arts & Leisure Centre

North Of England

Date: Saturday 22nd March - Sunday 23rd March 2025

Venue: The Gala Theatre, Durham

2025 National Youth Brass Band Championships

Date: Saturday 29th March

Venue: Hymers College, Hull

The National Youth Brass Band Championships offers performance opportunities for youth bands of all levels in both competitive and non-competitive sections. The event is designed to celebrate, unite and promote youth music-making in brass bands at all levels. The event is made up of three sections:

Showcase Section:

This non-competitive section offers the opportunities for youth bands to perform without the pressure of competing. All bands are welcome to play a ten-minute programme, but bands are able to select the length of performance to facilitate groups at different developmental stages.

Performance Section:

The aim of this section is to offer young musicians an introductory experience of competitive performance. Participating bands are given the freedom to pick their own 15-minute programme of music.

Championship Section:

The aim of the Championship Section is for young people to perform together at a high standard and emulates the top-level competitions that competing brass bands enter, such as the Regionals. This section is assigned a set work which all competing bands will perform. The 2025 set work is Fanfares, Songs and Dances by Philip Sparke with the contest offering the UK contesting premiere of this piece.

The 2025 Spring Festival

Date: Saturday 10th May 2025

Venue: Blackpool Winter Gardens

The Spring Festival is a set test piece contest made up of three sections - Grand Shield, Senior Cup and Senior Trophy. This is a completely separate competition to the aforementioned Regionals and the opportunity to compete at The Spring Festival is via invitation only. Each section is assigned a test piece that all competing bands within that section will perform. The 2025 Spring Festival set works are:

Grand Shield: Dances & Arias by Edward Gregson

Senior Cup: Terra Australis by Martin Ellerby

Senior Trophy: Fantasy for Brass Band by Malcolm Arnold

European Brass Band Championships

Date: Saturday 10th May 2025

Venue: Stavanger Konserthus, Stavanger, Norway

The 2025 European Brass Band Championships involves a week of events including:

The assembly of the European Youth Brass Band 2025
European Conductors Competition
EBBC Championship
EBBC Challenge Section
EYBBC Development Section
EYBBC Premier Section

The EBBC Championship will take place on Friday 9th and Saturday 10th May and is made up of an own-choice and a set test piece contest. The championsuip features some of the best brass bands from across Europe and the UK including:

Cory
Foden’s
The Cooperation Band
Valaisia Band
Brass Band Treize Etoiles

Elgar International Festival of Brass

Date: Saturday 7th & Sunday 8th June 2024

Venue: Malvern Theatre

We’ll move away from competitive banding for a second to talk about the 2025 Elgar International Festival of Brass. On Saturday 7th June, audiences can experience a performance from Septura Brass. On Sunday, audiences can enjoy show-stopping performances of three world class british brass bands: Foden’s Band, Black Dyke and Cory who will perform three separate programmes on Sunday 8th June. A local community band will be invited to perform in the bandstand within the theatre grounds. It’s your chance to see three of the country’s best bands perform on one day, with one ticket!

Whit Friday 2025

Date: Friday 13th June 2025

Venue: Tameside & Saddleworth

Known as the ‘Greatest Free Show on Earth’, Whit Friday is a spectacle featuring bands of all sections - from top level Championship to local community bands and ‘for-one-night-only’ scratch bands. The Whit Friday marches are competitive events dispersed amongst villages across Saddleworth and Tameside. Each event consists of a road march followed by a contest march for which each band is judged by an adjudicator. It’s such a fun event and I would highly recommend either forming or joining a band for the day (you’re not restrained by the normal registration rules of other contests!) or grabbing a picnic and a deckchair and spending the afternoon/evening at one of the many venues.

2025 British Open Brass Band Championships

Date: Saturday 6th September 2025

Venue: Symphony Hall, Birmingham

Fast forward to September 2025 and our attention turns to the oldest brass band competition - the British Open. Similar to previous contests we’ve mentioned in this overview, the British Open is a set work contest where every band has to play a test piece assigned by the panel. 2025’s piece has yet to be announced, but we’ll let you know when it does!

2025 Lower Section National Finals

Date: Saturday 13th - Sunday 14th September 2025

Venue: Cheltenham Racecourse

The top bands from each Regional Championship in February/March in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th sections will compete against each other in their respective sections. Each section will have a set work that all bands within that section will have to perform. These pieces will be announced following the completion of the Regionals in 2025.

2025 National Finals Championship Section

Date: Saturday 11th October 2025

Venue: The Royal Albert Hall, London

The bands who won favour with the adjudicators in the Championship section of each Regionals competition will go on to compete at the National Finals at the Royal Albert Hall. One of the most coveted performance opportunities within the brass banding world, this is an opportunity for brass band lovers to experience the best of the best in the UK perform.

Brass in Concert 2025

Date: Saturday 15th November 2025

Venue: The Glasshouse (formally Sage), Gateshead

This was a highlight in my 2024 calendar and if you love brass bands - heck, if you love music in general - GET A TICKET when they are released. For me, this is one of, if not the most approachable contests for listeners. This contest features some of the best bands in the UK alongside fantastic bands from Europe and programmes that feature innovation, show-stopping repertoire, jaw-dropping soloists. It is an absolutely incredible day of music - I cannot recommend it enough!

2025 Scottish Open

Date: Saturday 29th November 2025 (TBC)