International flavor of band festival likely to continue

By HERB BROCK

Staff Writer

When George Foreman came up with the idea of bringing bands from overseas to the 2000 Great American Brass Band Festival, he believed it would go over well with festival-goers. After what happened in the backyard of his home last week at a party right before the festival, he knew it would be a hit.

Foreman, co-founder and director of the festival, and his wife, Diana, hosted an outdoor dinner party for supporters of the festival that featured a concert by members of the German, Japanese and Advocate brass bands.

"I had only one ground rule for the party and that was that nobody could sit at a table where everyone was speaking the same language," said Foreman. "I wanted people to enjoy the company of people from other countries. Before long, people were talking, laughing and hugging each other."

But the highlight of the party came when everyone stood in a circle and started singing.

"It was almost spontaneous. There everybody was in this big circle and, suddenly, they all started singing 'Amazing Grace,' in English, German and Japanese," Foreman said. " It was one of the most amazing moments I have ever experienced.

"My hope, then and there, was that this spirit would carry on to the festival."

Based on what he witnessed Saturday and Sunday, Foreman said his hope was more than realized.

"From everything I saw and everything so many people told me as I walked among the crowd, what I had hoped would happen did happen. I felt like there truly was a coming together of people from around the country and around the world," he said. "Music really is a common denominator, a common language, and it really does bring people together, both the people who play it and the people who listen to it.

"And by providing people an opportunity to come together and share this common experience, I think we really can accomplish a lot to bring this world a little closer together, and I think it goes a lot farther toward reaching those lofty goals of getting people to get along and world peace than a lot of other things that have been tried."

People attending the 2001 GABBF can expect to see a continuation of the international flavor -- and the sharing of that "common experience" -- that made its debut at this year's festival. Foreman hopes to line up at least three or four foreign bands for next year's event.

Foreman acknowledged that he and the festival committee endured some "trials" in trying to get all the foreign bands that were scheduled to perform at the festival to Danville. For various reasons, bands from Ukraine, Italy and Sweden were unable to make it.

"We did have some complications, but considering the enormity of what we were trying to accomplish and the inherent problems in trying to make arrangements for bands from so many different countries, we were fortunate to get the bands we did (from England, Denmark, Germany and Japan)," he said. "Those bands, and the others, of course, performed well and were received well."

Overall, Foreman said he was "very happy" with the 11th GABBF and thought "just about everything went very well."

As far as attendance, Foreman and Jerry Boyd, who headed up the festival committee's logistics unit for years and still pitches in, estimated the total draw at about 52,000, which, according to Boyd, would "equal or surpass" the attendance at the 1999 festival. The figure includes attendance at the Danville-Boyle County Airport for the balloon race and at all concerts at Centre College, Weisiger Park and other venues.

The biggest attendance for any single event is at the Saturday night picnic, and Boyd said the estimated 13,500 who attended the picnic this year set a new record.