Saturday August 13th
The day began
early with a three hour combined rehearsal at WYFRS Headquarters.
After being presented with an official letter of greeting
from Her Majesty the Queen, the bands got down to work.
While the English conductor, Lee Whitworth, was rehearsing
the selections he would be conducting at the gala concert on
Wednesday night, BFD Fire Chief Wayne Thorburne and BFDB Band
Director Wendell Eisener were given a tour of their very impressing
training, administrative, and dispatch facilities.
The English fire officer giving them the tour lamented that
due to financial constraint, the annual fire service budget for
their county had recently been cut back to the equivalent of only
$160,000,000.00 Canadian!
After rehearsal
and lunch, members of both bands packed gear and proceeded to the
City Hall in Bradford, the county seat of West Yorkshire.
After a marching display in the parade square in front of the
town hall (a massive structure) by members of the WYFRS Band, both
bands were granted the “freedom of the city,” an ancient and highly
prized honour that is usually reserved for the armed forces, and
were given police escort as we marched around the city centre.
BFD Band members
then performed a brief open-air concert for hundreds of spectators
in the parade square, in the presence of local dignitaries including
the Deputy Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire (the Queen’s local
representative, much like N.S.’s Lieutenant-Governor) and the Lord
Mayor of Bradford.