Tuesday 21 April 2015 - Vibe Hotel & Conference Centre Opening, Marysville (#117)

Our final gig for the 2014-15 season marked another milestone in the recovery of Marysville on the evening of Tuesday 21 April, when the Vibe Hotel & Conference Centre was officially opened in Marysville. This development, with $19million assistance from the Victorian State Government, was on the drawing board and in construction for several years, and its completion signifies a major step forward in the development of the “new Marysville”. Since Vibe Hotels had been the principal sponsor of the 1st Australian Steelband Festival in Marysville in April 2013, we decided to repay the favour by playing pro-bono as guests arrived at the opening function.

Because of the overflow crowd in attendance, there was “no room at the Inn” for us to play inside, so we set up the tents outside the entrance to welcome guests as they arrived, complete with coloured spotlights and twinkling “Xmas” lights. It made quite a colourful scene to match the colourful music coming from inside the tents. During the performance, we welcomed our local State Member of Parliament Cindy McLeish and our local Federal Member of Parliament Cathy McGowan, both of whom are keen supporters of the band.

After we finished our performance, we posed for a group photo with the period costume performers who also welcomed the guests, and who had been dancing along to our music for over an hour.