Mercurius Marching-/Showband Assen took first and second place in Kerkrade this weekend at the World Music Competition (WMC), the world championship for show bands. In the first division, the march took the win on Saturday, and a second place was achieved in the show yesterday.
At the march in the Parkstad Limburg Stadium, the German Spielmannszug Hatstedt was defeated, the Christian Fanfarekorps Irene from Hasselt came in third. “It went very well, we are very proud of it,” says showband member Judith van Dorst.
“We came in and there was so much audience, we have never had that before. We never play in front of an audience in this way, it was very cool”, Van Dorst exults. The desired interaction with the audience was there immediately. “There was silence when we wanted it and there was plenty of clapping when we had to. That got us through it, because it was warm and quite heavy.”
On the show part, the Asser band had to tolerate the Drumfanfare Laurentius from Voorschoten. Other competitors came from Renkum, Urk and the Danish Holbaek. Van Dorst is also very pleased with the second place. “Actually, it doesn’t matter where you end up, the whole experience was worth it.”