Lake George Community Band Festival returns for 2025

LAKE GEORGE VILLAGE | Orchestral music will emanate from Shepard Park on Saturday, July 19, as six bands perform in the 19th annual Lake George Community Band Festival. Five bands from small communities across New York and one from Connecticut will be performing in the free festival, which has entertained people of all ages since 2005. For years, area residents as well as tourists have expressed their appreciation for the family-friendly festival, primarily on social media. Traditionally, the bands in the festival have performed a wide variety of musical genres, including Broadway show tunes, movie themes, jazz, Dixieland, patriotic selections, and American classics. Between 2 p.m. and 7:50 p.m., each of the six bands, including the Lake George Community Band, will perform for 50 minutes, local band publicist Corinne Tarana said July 6. She added that all the bands except for the Gates Chili band have participated in the festival since its debut in 2005. The schedule is as follows: • 2:00 p.m. – 2:50 p.m. — Simsbury Community Band of Simsbury, Conn.• 3:00 p.m. – 3:50 p.m. — Gates Chili Community Concert Band, Rochester• 4:00 p.m. – 4:50 p.m. — Maybrook Wind Ensemble, Maybrook, NY• 5:00 p.m. – 5:50 p.m. — Ballston Spa Community Band• 6:00 p.m. – 6:50 p.m. — Honeoye Falls Community Concert Band, Honeoye Falls, NY• 7:00 p.m. – 7:50 p.m. — Lake George Community Band About 350 musicians will be performing over the six hours of concerts, and the musicians typically range in age from their teenage years to mid-80s. Tarana said that after the performances, the band members hold a communal pizza party in Shepard Park and enjoy reconnecting with old friends and meeting new band members. "We share a lot of camaraderie," Tarana said. "Getting to know all the people is a fun thing." The band received $2,000 in occupancy tax revenue from the town of Lake George for the 2025 festival, and Lake George Village suspended any fees they would otherwise pay for using Shepard Park during one of the busiest weekends of the summer. Tanner said she appreciated the municipal support. She added that the town and village get a great return on these investments. "A lot of the band members spend the weekend in Lake George or stay a whole week, not just one day," she said. "They plan their summer vacations around this festival, staying in motels or campgrounds." Lake George Mayor Perry said the festival and its setting beside Lake George have a remarkable synergy. "The Lake George Community Band Festival offers a sense of what we believe the Lake would be able to communicate if it could create music that we could hear, he said.

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Lake George Community Band Festival returns for 2025

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