The 2018 European Brass Band Championships are to be held in the Utrecht in the Netherlands, following the signing of contracts between EBBA and representatives of the host organisers.

Pen to paper

EBBA President, Ulf Rosenberg put pen to paper alongside Frits Lintmeijer (Alderman of Culture) and Appie Alferink (Zimihc Promotions) following the conclusion of recent negotiations at Utrecht City Hall.

It brought to a successful end a long term project initially instigated by Michiel van der Schaaf of Toerisme Utrecht to emphasise the city’s ambition to develop itself into a European wide centre of amateur music making.

New venue

The Championship will be based at the new 1,700 seat Tivoli Vredenburg Music Centre in early May 2018, which is expected to host visitors from all over the continent.

The festival will include the European Youth Brass Band, the European Soloist Competition and other events that will be accommodated in its chamber music hall and cross-over hall.

Five year future

The signing also seals the future five year hosting of the championships, which will see it go to Perth in 2014, followed by Freiburg in Germany, Lille in France, Ostende in Belgium and now Utrecht.

Perfect stage

At the signing, EBBA President Ulf Rosenberg stated: "Utrecht provides a perfect stage for large international cultural events such as the European Brass Band Championships.

The new Tivoli Vredenburg is a top class venue, whilst Utrecht is centrally located in Europe with a splendid infrastructure in a region with a rich cultural life.

In addition, the city has proven its intention of setting up a large festival that will draw a large and knowledgeable audience."

The new Tivoli Vredenburg is a top class venue, whilst Utrecht is centrally located in Europe with a splendid infrastructure in a region with a rich cultural lifeEBBA President, Ulf Rosenburg

Better than ever

Michiel van der Schaaf of the Toerisme Utrecht Convention Bureau, which specialises in drawing international events to the Utrecht region, intends to make the festival event better than ever.

He added: "Over the next few years, Utrecht is focusing on developing itself into the centre of amateur music perfectly suited for large-scale events such as the European Brass Band Championships.

Utrecht has built up a fine reputation in the international brass world, and we intend to polish this further over the coming years. This also fits in with the planned further growth of tourism to the city."

Polished welcome

Utrech Alderman Frits Lintmeijer was delighted to finally welcome the European Championships to his city.

"Music is becoming increasingly important in Utrecht and the opening of Tivoli Vredenburg in June 2014 is a good example of this.

As the municipality of Utrecht, we are naturally more than happy that the championships will be held here, and together with parties and entrepreneurs in the music sector, we will be building it up as we move on towards 2018.

Our ambition is to make a considerable leap in quality and realise an even larger event than before and to act as a springboard to bringing in more international cultural events."

Promoter

4BR understands that the central promoter Zimihc, a respected promoter within the amateur music sector will fulfil a central role with the first proposals concerning the event to be announced in early 2014.