Tredegar Band certainly enjoyed an eventful weekend as they did and didn't take to concert stages in Innsbruck and Devon.
Everything went according to plan as they headed to Austria to perform at the Hofburg Imperial Palace as part of the prestigious Innsbruck Promenade Festival on Friday evening.
Standing ovations
With the temperatures nudging above 30 degrees Celsius, the two hour concert was a hot and sticky affair — although one that brought three standing ovations from the 3,000 or so people packed into the ornate palace courtyard.
However, a few hours later, the severe thunderstorms across Europe meant that their proposed Saturday afternoon flight back to the UK was cancelled — with the band having to work with Lufthansa staff to be put up in hotels near Frankfurt airport.
Change of weather
With a performance at the Bestival Festival in Dorset to look forward to on Sunday afternoon, an early morning flight was booked back to Birmingham followed by a three hour coach trip to Lulworth Castle.
However, such was the change in the weather that by lunchtime the organisers had rung to say the concert was off due to storms and high winds — and that a detour had to be made to take the band all the way back home to Wales instead.
We certainly didn't think that was going to happen when we took to a boiling hot stage in AustriaTredegar Band
Something else
Band spokesperson Jon Bound told 4BR: "We certainly didn't think that was going to happen when we took to a boiling hot stage in Austria.
We're used to a bit of rain disturbing things in Wales, but this was something else.
Luckily we have some experienced travelers in the band who were able to work quickly with the airline to sort out accommodation, food and transport and an early flight back to the UK — but when we on our way to Dorset we found the weather had got worse."
He added: "Sometimes these things happen to bands — so we are lucky our next concert performance at the Welsh National Eisteddfod this weekend will take place at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff and not outdoors."
