Main Stage

Organizers of the Great American Brass Band Festival say all tents on the central part of the lawn from Old Centre to the Main Stage have to be taken down by 4:30 p.m. Saturday. The area in front of the Main Stage will be cleared at 4 p.m. Saturday for table setup for the evening picnic.

JUNCTION CITY - Community members behind the annual Junction City Railroad Days have worked hard to put together a festival that appeals to a lot of folks. Attendance has dropped off in recent years, and they want to rebuild it. “We want the public to come out and have a good time - to enjoy the weekend,” said Lloyd Bowling, chairman of the festival. A wide variety of events have been organized for the weekend, including a number of bands performing Friday and Saturday nights.

Sunday's Great American Brass Band Outdoor Worship Service will be at 9:30 a.m. at the Main Stage, Centre College. The Danville community and its churches come together for an ecumenical worship service, accompanied by inspirational brass band music. The time was incorrect in the festival guide.

Friday, Sept. 7, 2012   8 a.m. - 6 p.m. -  Town Square Bank Bake Sale for All God's Children , 150 S. Main 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. -  Nicholasville United Methodist Church Bake and Yard Sale,   303 W. Maple 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. -  Arts & Crafts Marketplace,   Court House Lawn, 101 N. Main 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.-   Twice as Nice Boutique,   Booths Open, 955 South Main  All Day - Jessamine Beef Cattle Association...

For the third year in a row, Ichthus has expanded its effort to bring central-Kentucky residents to the annual Wilmore festival with special single-day tickets, available until Friday at a discounted price. Branded “My Ichthus," this year's program offers customization of the four-day festival experience with pricing for each separate day from Wednesday, June 20, to Saturday, June 23. Individual pricing was offered for Wednesday night of the 2010 festival and Saturday of the 2011 festival.

Tonight There are plenty of options tonight related to the Great American Brass Band Festival. Concerts are: Olympia, 8 p.m., Weisiger Park Circle City Sidewalk Stompers, 7:30 p.m., O'Charley's Rhythm and Brass, 7:30 p.m., Beaumont Inn in Harrodsburg. A gallery hop with 17 stops on or near Main Street will be held from 5:30 to 9 p.m. The balloon race will be at Stuart Powell Field at the Danville-Boyle County Airport. Liftoff is expected at 7 p.m. Saturday 7-10:30 a.m.: Pancake breakfast, Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church 11 a.m.: Parade on Main Street to Centre College Weisiger Park/Courthouse 9 a.m.: Saxton's Cornet Band 10 a.m.: Great Olympian Traditional Jazz Band Noon: Piedmont Trombone Society 1 p.m.: Rhythm and Brass 2 p.m.: Euphoria 3 p.m.: Millennium Brass 4 p.m.: 8th Regiment Constitution Square, Main Street 9 a.m.: Euphoria 10 a.m.: James Madison University 12:30 p.m.: Circle City Sidewalk Stompers 1 p.m.: Saxton's Cornet Band 2 p.m.: Boston Brass 3 p.m.: Indiana Wind Symphony Farmers National Bank, Main Street 9 a.m.: Danville Pipe Band 10 a.m.: Dick Domek and Walnut Street Ragtime Ramblers Centre College, Main Stage Noon: Indiana Wind Symphony 1 p.m.: 8th Regiment 2 p.m.: 202nd Army 3 p.m.: London Citadel 4 p.m.: Circle City Sidewalk Stompers 5 p.m.:...

The Great American Brass Band Festival is looking for band buddies. Each band at the festival will be assigned a "buddy" who will serve as a community liaison during the weekend's festivities. Band buddies greet the bands when they arrive and give the directors the keys to the dorms if they are staying on Centre College's campus and help them throughout the festival with any needs they may have. If you would like to be a band buddy, contact Elaine Harris at (606) 346-9875 or (859)

Heavy rain most of the day forced the cancelation of the early afternoon performances at the second annual John Michael Montgomery Country-Fest, but right on schedule, the sun appeared just before the evening performances on the main stage. By the time Brad Alford took the stage, the crowd began to swell. Long before Montgomery took the stage to close the evening, had grown to several thousand diehard country music fans boot-scooting to their favorite songs. Organizers said the rains caused a few minor problems earlier in the day as RVs tried to get into the campground, but the first night of the two-day event went off smoothly otherwise.

When Larry Vaught, Advocate-Messenger sports editor and brass band guru, asked me to leave the office Friday and help set up for the weekend's festivities, I jumped at the chance to sweat a little for a good cause. Invention takes 90 percent perspiration and 10 percent inspiration, Thomas Edison said, and with plans to perspire in my future, I simply needed to find inspiration out there on Centre's main lawn. I ended up learning a few tidbits about the festival that's been in my backyard for -- well, almost as long as I have -- 18 years.

Dear Editor, I would like to congratulate the community of Danville and the volunteers who make the Great American Brass Band Festival a success and such a wonderful experience. My wife and I have attended the festival for the last five years and we tell everyone we work with what a great time we have at the festival and invite them to come with us. However, I would like to say that we were puzzled by the direction the GABBF seems to have taken this year by scheduling entertainment like the Dixie Power Trio, the Dirty Dozen Brass and the ragtime band.

Heavy rain most of the day forced the cancelation of the early afternoon performances at the second annual John Michael Montgomery Country-Fest, but right on schedule, the sun appeared just before the evening performances on the main stage. By the time Brad Alford took the stage, the crowd began to swell. Long before Montgomery took the stage to close the evening, had grown to several thousand diehard country music fans boot-scooting to their favorite songs. Organizers said the rains caused a few minor problems earlier in the day as RVs tried to get into the campground, but the first night of the two-day event went off smoothly otherwise.

Friday, Sept. 7, 2012   8 a.m. - 6 p.m. -  Town Square Bank Bake Sale for All God's Children , 150 S. Main 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. -  Nicholasville United Methodist Church Bake and Yard Sale,   303 W. Maple 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. -  Arts & Crafts Marketplace,   Court House Lawn, 101 N. Main 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.-   Twice as Nice Boutique,   Booths Open, 955 South Main  All Day - Jessamine Beef Cattle Association...

While most of the 150 artists playing this year's Ichthus festival will cross state lines to get to Wilmore, some are natives of the Bluegrass state, and a few don't even need to leave the county. Acts with Jessamine County ties in this year's festival include the Abe Parker Band, Amaris Blevins and Absalom Absalom. Abe Parker Band Asbury University graduate Abe Parker fronts the group that also includes Nicholasville's Robbie Goins, fellow Asbury grad Tyler Young and 18-year-old Sam Jones of Lexington.

For the third year in a row, Ichthus has expanded its effort to bring central-Kentucky residents to the annual Wilmore festival with special single-day tickets, available until Friday at a discounted price. Branded “My Ichthus," this year's program offers customization of the four-day festival experience with pricing for each separate day from Wednesday, June 20, to Saturday, June 23. Individual pricing was offered for Wednesday night of the 2010 festival and Saturday of the 2011 festival.

JUNCTION CITY - Community members behind the annual Junction City Railroad Days have worked hard to put together a festival that appeals to a lot of folks. Attendance has dropped off in recent years, and they want to rebuild it. “We want the public to come out and have a good time - to enjoy the weekend,” said Lloyd Bowling, chairman of the festival. A wide variety of events have been organized for the weekend, including a number of bands performing Friday and Saturday nights.

HARRODSBURG — Ragged Edge Community Theatre’s 2010-2011 season continues later this summer with “The Diviners.” The Main Stage show will run Aug. 20-22 and 27-29. Artistic director Tagan Citty says “The Diviners” is the story of an unusual but gifted boy named Buddy and his friendship to the ex-preacher C.C. Showers, who is having a crisis of faith. “The two are helping one another over come their fears when they are tragically pulled apart,” Citty noted.

The hot, steamy and occasionally rainy conditions resembled what you can experience this time of year in one of the world capitals of brass band music, but the New Orleans-style weather apparently was to blame for a slight decline in attendance at the 2010 Great American Brass Band Festival. Despite seven emergency calls to tend to people made ill by the heat and the absence of several groups who bought tables for the Saturday night picnic but didn’t show up because of a rainy forecast, organizers generally were pleased with the attendance and performances.

One of the lesser-known aspects of the Ichthus Christian Music Festival held every year in Wilmore is the fact that several of the bands that play are unsigned artists still trying to make it in the music scene. Venues like the Edge stage and the Deep End provide a medium for some of those groups looking to make a name for themselves. Many of the bands that perform on the main stage on a regular basis such as Grits and Me in Motion made their debuts on some of the smaller stages at the festival, and this year's crop of alternative performers are hoping for the same fortune.

Sunday's Great American Brass Band Outdoor Worship Service will be at 9:30 a.m. at the Main Stage, Centre College. The Danville community and its churches come together for an ecumenical worship service, accompanied by inspirational brass band music. The time was incorrect in the festival guide.

The stage for many of the Great American Brass Band Festival concerts as well as seating for the picnic are moving this year due to construction on the Centre College campus. The festival is set for June 12-15. Concerts are scheduled at Weisiger Park, Constitution Square State Historic Site and Farmers National Bank, all on Main Street, as well as the Centre College Main Stage. The main stage, though, is moving in front of the library at Centre. Before, it was in front of Cowan Dining Commons.