Diamond Harbour - 14th December 2024

Most brass band players will have spent many hours at Christmas time over the years ‘singing for their supper’ in front of supermarkets and shopping centres around their local area. The busy and diverse collection of playouts we have at Sumner Silver Band means that we don’t do this very often, but in recent year we have managed to include in our schedule a visit to Diamond Harbour to perform in front of the Four Square supermarket there.

Coupling the performance with our visit to Lyttelton Farmers’ Market also allows some members of the band to travel to the playout on the regular ferry service which connects the township with the port.

View from the ferry as it leaves Lyttelton for Diamond Harbour

And when it comes to performing in front of a supermarket there can be few venues in the area which are more picturesque - as can be seen from the short video clip which shows the band performing Feliz Navidad with the Port Hills beyond across the other side of the bay.

Feliz Navidad, as the wind begins to blow and provides a challenge for the trombone section.

Since opening a few years ago the Diamond Harbour Four Square has become a bit of a community hub, and the team there have been very welcoming to us - even going as far as providing chilled drinks for us when we arrived (most acceptable on a day when the temperature was approaching 30 degrees), and ice creams when we’d completed our performance. Thanks guys - it was much appreciated.

Jingle Bells (with guest conductor…)