Summer 2013
This summer the BFDB will again be hosting our friends from the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service Band. Plans are in the works for a couple concerts and showing them around different areas of our great Province. Stay tuned as more information will be posted as their arrival comes closer.
England 2011
The Band of the West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service had a busy and exciting week planned for us with concerts, a parade, and opportunity for local sight-seeing.
Over the coming weeks please stay turned for daily recaps of our exchange with the WYFRSB from both 2010 and 2011.
UK 2011
Thursday August 11th: Depart for England
Friday August 12th: Arrive in England
Saturday August 13th: Civic Day
Sunday August 14th: Free Day
Monday August 15th: Whitby and the North Yorkshire Moores
Tuesday August 16th: Masham
Wednesday August 17th: Leeds and Gala Concert
Thrusday August 18th: York and Curry Night
Friday August 19th: Free day and BBQ
Saturday August 20th: Depart for Nova Scotia
To view pictures of the WYFRSB visit this past August click here.
CODA
The Bridgewater
Fire Department Band has been part of the cultural and civic fabric
of this community for 143 years.
And although we are a civilian band, we are very much a
“service” band. There is
no other community-based band in Nova Scotia that does what we do.
Every Remembrance Day, we are there.
Every Fire Prevention Week, we are there.
Every Fishermen’s Memorial Service in Lunenburg, we are
there. When the RCMP
Musical Ride came to Bridgewater, we were there.
When the Portrait of Honour comes to Bridgewater in October,
we will be there. All
over the province – from Yarmouth to Kentville to Chester to Halifax
– we are there, representing our Fire Service, the Town, and the
County. Now we have had
the honour of representing our province internationally.
The full band plays at formal concerts, parades, garden
parties, and our smaller groups such as the Big Band, the Dixieland
Band and the German Band are also busy all up and down the South
Shore playing at events both small and large.
In making the
Band Exchanges of 2010-2011 a reality, we have enjoyed the generous
support of the Province of Nova Scotia, the Municipality of the
District of Lunenburg, and of course, the Town of Bridgewater and
Bridgewater Fire Department, and for that we are grateful.
We are also grateful to our faithful concert-goers (some of
whom regularly come from as far as the Annapolis Valley) for their
ongoing interest and support.
To all who have helped in any way, we say Thank You.
The Band now
enters a period of rebuilding and recruitment as we prepare for the
activities of the fall and winter: more practices, more concerts,
more parades; even a dance to prepare for.
It simply never stops.
But then again, the band does not exist simply for the sake
of having a band; more than being entertainers, we are in the pride
business. So next when
you see those blue fire department uniforms with the red stripes
coming down the street in a parade, or hear us on the bandstand at
Shipyards Landing, be proud that we have here in Bridgewater what
virtually no other community in Canada has: a highly-trained,
highly-professional, yet volunteer, group of musicians who
collectively donate thousands of hours of year to serving their
community. And, just
like the Fire Department we represent, the Band, too, is EVER READY.