Tooting some horns for volunteers

About 130 work to make each festival run smoothly

By ANNABEL GIRARD
Staff Writer

The first year of the band festival, a card table, large umbrella and cigar box was all that was needed to handle the sale of memorabilia.

``It was not elaborate,'' said Anna Ingram, who has volunteered at The Marketplace every year since 1990.

Volunteers are the key to making The Great American Brass Band Festival work. Coordinator of volunteers Jerry Boyd said 132 people helped last year and about the same number is expected this year. Volunteers have ranged from 120 to 130 in recent years, he said.

Help can be as involved as putting up the stage the Friday before the festival and setting up 125 picnic tables in about an hour Saturday or as simple as driving a group of performers from the airport.

Newer to the volunteer scene is Adria Mahon, who has served as an announcer for the past three years for bands performing at Constitution Square state park.

Mahon, who also is involved in West T. Hill Community Theater, thought it was a good use of her talent. ``Some people fear public speaking more than death. I don't.''

For Ingram, volunteering for the festival was ``the first time I had been involved in anything communitywide.'' Her interest came from being a member of Leadership Boyle. ``I wanted to be involved in something.''

Today, The Marketplace is under a large tent, uses eight computers and takes credit cards. In the beginning, two people worked each shift. ``Now at times, you never have enough,'' Ingram said. ``There is a rush of people between bands playing.''

One of the worst years was when it poured rain. ``I can laugh about it now. ... We were standing in mud.''

Someone brought in boards for them to stand on, but the mud and water went over them. Ingram said they continued to sell without a concern until electrician Mike Montgomery walked by and told them he didn't think it was a good idea to be walking in water and using the computers.

Despite all the people who come by, Ingram gets little chance to talk to them about the festival because she stays so busy. ``Most of the time you don't have time to stop and chat.''

While The Marketplace sometimes is swamped with customers wanting to buy everything from festival pins to recordings by the groups performing, one year was especially bad. There was a special on T-shirts from past festivals.

``It was like a yard sale or a Moonlight Madness.''

Two things stick with her from past festivals: how clean everything is and not hearing the bands.

Ingram is impressed that people pick up after themselves. ``After hundreds and thousands of people have been there about the only sign of them is the worn paths in the grass where they have walked.''

Because the tent is behind and to the side of the bands, Ingram hears little band music. ``If it's busy, you don't see anything.'' One of the highlights for her was hearing the Olympia Brass Band play ``Amazing Grace'' during the Sunday morning worship service.

Mahon hears the music up close and personal since her job is to announce the bands.

While she had been at Constitution Square for the past several years, this year she expects to have a new location for a change of scene.

To introduce the bands, she tries to find out something about them that isn't well known. One year she found a director of a military band who had been with the band for 25 years and was making an ``anniversary tour.''

Another fact that interested her about one band was that they used original instruments and copies of uniforms from the 1800s.

She has found the band members love what they do. ``For most of them it is an avocation,'' Mahon said. ``They want to pass it along so future generations can keep up the tradition of small town bands.''

Mahon also takes time to tell the audience about the community and find out who's from what state. She has noticed that bands come with a following and that part of the audience goes where the band goes instead of just sitting and listen to all the performers at the park.

Mahon usually works a two-hour shift, which frees her in time to participate in the parade down Main Street, one of her favorite parts of the festival.

She has been through rain and sun. ``I'm looking forward to good weather. Nice weather, a breezy day.''

When Ingram looks back on the festival, which has survived through storm and beaming sun, she expresses amazement. ``It is just so unique and it keeps growing and growing and new people hear about it and want to come.''