Freemasons' Festival of Bands & Strings

Every year young musicians from around Victoria converge on Ballarat for the Freemasons Victoria Festival of Bands and Strings. A lively program that runs for over a week in early September each year. The Festival program includes novice, junior, senior and advanced sections across most performance categories. The strings sections include the D’Addario Area Orchestra where combined school string orchestra compete at the highest level. The Festival of the Bands includes both stage and concert band sections featuring the prestigious Petera Clamp Prize for Premier Grade Concert Bands. Other performance categories include percussion ensembles, jazz bands and a suite of VCE ensemble sections.