Final goodbye for Woolston Brass Band's historic home

Christchurch's popular Woolston Brass Band farewelled the place it has called home for well over a century.

The band's historic earthquake-damaged base will be demolished in January to make way for a brand new Community and Arts Hub.

It held a special one-off street concert with Jolt Dance outside the band's home for the last 132 years on Dampier St.

The quake-damaged building will be replaced by the $3 million hub.

Woolston Brass Inc general manager Todd Turner said it has raised $1.3 million so far and is looking to fundraise the rest.

He said the current band room may not be the prettiest building, but it holds a lot of history for the band.

"We will miss it, it's got lots of memories, lots of stuff happened and lots of amazing musicians have come through this place."

Woolston Brass and their other bands will move to a temporary home in Addington for a year while the community hub is being built.

"We've got three bands, we've got a junior band that has about 45 kids in it, an intermediate sort of band, which is a mix of older people and kids, that's about 30 and then we've got about 35 in the senior band."

It collaborates with schools to run the successful Woolston Brass Academy education programme.

Turner said the rebuild will help ensure the next generation of musicians get to practice in a first-class facility.

- By Geoff Sloan
Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air