Portland Citizens Brass Band Uniform Update

I am very proud of my family's involvement in and commitment to the Portland Citizens Brass Band - grandfather, uncles, cousins, and their families. That such a small town has such a strong and vibrant musical community is both a credit and a treasure to be cherished at all costs. New uniforms will inject new vigour and pride into this inspiring band!

great band deserve our support

The Portland Brass Band went to the extreme this year, representing Portland at the Australian National Band Championships! This was an absolutely huge event with 26 very proud Portlandians bringing home many awards and putting PORTLAND on the map!! Not bad for a group of volunteers!

Imagine how much smarter and professional the band could look if assisted in a full uniform upgrade!

Our band recently changed our uniform both formal and included informal. Your proposal to continue along the lines of a Heritage type uniform is always going to cost a motza. We found with the newer materials available and also sourcing uniform through a large franchise company has its advantages. Our new formal uniform kept our current tie, no band jacket as in suit style but a sleeveless (you can do sleeve) vest in black (again colour choice is quite extensive) plus a charcoal long sleeve shirt (both in male and female cut) was accepted by all band members. Further we also had vest and shirt include a sewn band name included. The idea was the band paid for the vests and stitching and members paid for their shirts. All done through Hip Pocket Workwear Ballarat. Vest and stiching cost band approximately less than $60 per person. 30 band members $1800. We also ditched the traditional band hat and when with a new felt type hat at less than $10 each. The beauty of this approach is that Hip Pocket have access to the vests, shirts and Stichting all the time. Sticthting was $8.50per item but we ordered in bulk and had cost absorbed into a reduced price for shirts and vests. Effectively band members spent less than $40 for Shirts and band band roughly under $50 for vests and Stichting. Band uniform includes members supplying their own black slacks/trousers(not jeans), black socks and shoes boots (no runners).

The Portland Citizens Brass Band not only perform locally to support the community, they also travel interstate representing the Glenelg Shire and South West Victoria. It would be great to see their uniforms updated so they can look their best during all banding performances!

The Portland Band are well overdue for some upgrades and funding to assist them to appropriately represent the Portland area in Brass Banding and to perform in the local community.