This evening at St Helen’s Church there was a concert to celebrate fifty years of Abingdon Town Band.

Steve Rich, the musical director for thirty years, looked back to the days when rehearsals began at Dunmore School in 1965, and now to the excellent facilities they use at John Mason School in 2015. He looked forward to 2065 when the Band will hopefully have their own rehearsal hall, and bandstand in the park.

The band play at many civic events including the remembrance day services in Abingdon for the last 45 years. Steve’s wife, Alison, the principal cornet player, has played the Last Post most of those years, and has been complemented by army experts on many occasions.

The band will be doing Proms in the Park again on June 6th, as part of Music in the Park.

This evenings concert began with the National Anthem, and ended with the bands signature tune ‘True and Trusty’. There was a full and varied programme.

Last night, Abingdon County Hall Museum opened its doors from 5pm-9pm for an evening of free entertainment for all.

Performers included:

• Oxford Horns,
• Opera Anywhere
• Ian Miles and The Mulberry Band

+ Raw Diva, a talented all female dance group from Oxford.

Raw Diva were raising money for Blue Skye Thinking, a local charity which supports research so that all children diagnosed with brain tumours will have a better chance of survival. It is also one of the charities of Helen Pighills, the new Abingdon Mayor. The other is the Breakaway Club.

The museum opening was an opportunity to experience the museum in a new light

and to watch the setting sun from the museum roof.

Mike, the Labour Party Candidate for the Town Centre, won a guess the weight of the Easter Egg at the Gift Centre at Easter. It was 13KG.

He did not want to eat the egg all himself, and decided to see if the people of Old Station House would enjoy it instead.

During electoral purdah he could not invite publicity, or do anything opponents could claim was an electoral bribe, and so waited until today to do the presentation.

While there, I discovered that one of the Station House residents grew up on a farm, and gets great pleasure from looking after the two Station House hens.

You may have seen their eggs advertised in the window.

The weather did not look good for the Abingdon Air and Country Show at Dalton Barracks.

But by the time the flying started, soon after 1pm, the rain had cleared and there was some blue sky.

Not all the flights had been able to get there because of the conditions, but there was still lots to enjoy in the early afternoon.

After the first flights, there was a shower, and people settled back again to watch the planes and a parachute display team.

As well as the airshow there were many interesting exhibits of the type you see at a Country Fair.

Members of the local Nepalese community were collecting for their home country – devastated by an earthquake.

At around 3pm the rain set in again. Some people headed for the exit – causing queues…

Other headed under canvas.

In one of the marquees Fiona Harrison entertained people in the wartime spirit with some old Cockney Favorites.

That was followed by the Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers and Vale Islanders.

More pictures on the Abingdon Blog Facebook Page