A TINY village was chosen to host the launch of a website dedicated to Europe’s fastestgrowing festival of brass music.

With only a month to go before the first performances, the appropriately-named Brasside, on the outskirts of Durham City, was chosen for the launch of brassfestival.co.uk – the website dedicated to Brass: Durham International Festival.

Musicians from as far away as Iceland, Nigeria, Mexico and Macedonia will be performing in Durham during the annual festival, which runs from July 4 to 19.

The festival covers the whole range of brass music, from traditional acts such as the Black Dyke Band, who perform on July 6, to the Afrobeat sounds of Femi Kuti, who perform on July 13.

Euphonium player Brad Long, who has made several appearances at the festival after a 30-year musical career with the Patchogue Plymouth (Amoco) Band, Blackhall Colliery Band and Durham Constabulary Band, performed at the website’s launch.

The 50-year-old father-of-two, from Peterlee, is an auxiliary nurse at the University Hospital of North Durham, and has been involved in the local brass scene since accompanying his father to Fishburn Band rehearsals in the Sixties. He said: “I adore the sonorous sound of brass and the whole sense of camaraderie associated with being a bandsman.”