Sunday March 7th saw the first ever Winterguard Spintastic to be held in the West Country which attracted over 200 participants from near and far to the WISE campus, Filton College. Local groups included Bristol Harlequins and Cohesion whilst special guests Inbhear Mor Marchers came all the way from Arklow, Co Wicklow, Ireland.

Report by Andy Hewlett

The morning session focussed on education with beginners and advanced classes in flag, sabre, rifle and baton for marching members of all the guards, as well as a number of young people who were experiencing guard for the first time. WGUK's Matt Johnson ran a course entitled 'Planning your Programme: A Primer' which covered how to plan a Winterguard programme for instructors and was well attended.



Both sessions proved very popular and after lunch all groups put on their shows under competition conditions. Dance groups K-Boom and Escape added an exciting new dimension to the show whilst Bristol Harlequins 3 groups excelled as majorettes with batons and pom-poms.

Pegasus Cadets stole the show with their highly entertaining 'Twist' and Cohesion produced a slinky dance style show from the film 'Dirty Dancing'. But favourites with the audience were Inbhear Mor Marchers who were the first Irish guard to perform in Britain since the 90s. Despite being small in numbers, they produced a well thought out show of jazz style dance numbers which they performed well. Definitely one to watch for the future!



The final performance of the day was from by Pegasus whose show 'Time to say Goodbye' is now really starting to come together. Following Pegasus all the groups went on for retreat and were given a certificate to mark the event and the day concluded with the National Anthem played by Pegasus Brass.

The general consensus afterwards was that the first Bristol Spintastic was a huge success. The fact that there were no losers today coupled with some good education and the chance to make friends made for a very enjoyable day. The question was, when are we doing it again?

Discuss this story | Previous page