On the 14 th of July, The Daylesford Community Brass Band and U3A Hepburn Shire’s “Le Cercle Français” presented a French National Day Celebration featuring traditional French music and songs with solo performers.
This was the ninth annual “French night” at The Daylesford Town Hall which was beautifully decorated in blue white and red and alive with festive music. We thank the Hepburn Shire Council for hosting us. All present as usual enjoyed a happy evening of food and music and a little ‘cancan’ in the grand finale at the end of the night.
“Vive La France” is the Daylesford Community Brass Band’s major fundraising event of the year and the band provided a number of rousing tunes from Bizet, Dvorak, Lecuono and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Beautiful voices such as Christine Douglas sang “Songs my Mother taught me” by Dvorak and Millie Gouldthorpe sang “La Mer” by Charles Trenet. Euphonium soloists, Chris Billings and Mark Lyall, performed the Duet from the Pearl Fishers by Georges Bizet, and Conductor Jenny Jordan led the band through a variety of French and European festive music.
Over 120 people braved the fairly brisk weather on the night to celebrate French National Day in style. There were prizes for French themed dress and French themed tables and almost everybody arrived in some form of French tribute costume.
In addition to the tickets purchased, there were raffles and a silent auction to raise funds for the Band.
To that effect, we would like to kindly thank all our sponsors for their support and generosity, including Community Bank Daylesford and District, Lavandula Swiss Italian Farm, Frances Pilley Shop, Daylesford Home Hardware, Istra Smallgoods, Daylesford Meat Company, Blake’s Family Grocers, Sailors Falls Estate Wine, Daylesford Cellarbrations, Daylesford Hamper Company, Mitre 10, Hepburn Distillery, Coles, The Farmer’s Arms Hotel, Palais-Hepburn, Sault Restaurant, Cliffy’s Emporium, Frank and Connie’s Restaurant, Rubens Restaurant, Bar Merenda, Harvest Cafe, and Bistro Terroir French Restaurant.
A very good night was had by all and all present are already looking forward to next year’s celebration.
Merci et à l’année prochaine!
