Brass band hire in Australia: the complete guide

Book a brass band and you are booking people, plural, and that changes everything about the arrangement. More musicians means more money and more space, but it also means an act that can walk down a street, play on a lawn with no power at all, and be heard by a crowd of five hundred without a single microphone.

There is nothing else on this site that does that. Prices below are live from the brass groups listed here, and they move mostly with headcount and hours.

The table below carries the live range by city, and it starts higher than the solo categories for the obvious reason. Every player is a separate professional with a separate diary, so the quote is essentially a headcount multiplied by a rate, plus travel and the time it takes to get everyone to the same place.

The practical consequence is that size is your main lever, not haggling. Groups on this site will usually quote a few different lineups, and a smaller horn group in a courtyard often lands better than a large one squeezed into the same space.

No power, no PA, no sound check, no cables to tape down. A brass group walks onto grass and plays. For festivals, street parties, market openings, sports events and school occasions, that removes the single most annoying part of putting live music outside.

It also means they can move. A band that meets guests at the gate and leads them in creates a moment that a fixed stage cannot. If you want that, describe the route and the timings when you enquire, because walking and playing needs planning and a smaller instrument list.

Work out where they physically stand before you book. A group of eight needs real floor area, ideally a hard flat surface, and they need to be able to see each other to stay together. A corner with a pillar through the middle of it will not do.

Indoors, volume is the thing to manage. Brass in a low ceilinged function room is overwhelming and conversation stops entirely, which may be exactly what you want for a grand entrance and exactly what you do not want during canapes. Tell them the room and the job, and a good group adjusts the lineup and the material accordingly.

Council events, parades and community days are the traditional home. But the interesting growth is in corporate and private work: a brass group leading guests into a gala, playing a launch outside a new store, working a racecourse lawn, or handling the arrival hour at a big wedding before the reception band takes over.

The style range is wider than the name suggests too. Groups here cover marching repertoire, but plenty also play funk, soul and current pop arranged for horns, and that version fills a dance floor perfectly well. Ask what a group actually plays rather than assuming from the category name.

How many players is this price for, and what are the other options? Can you play while walking, and for how long? How much space do you need to stand in? What is the plan if it rains, given nothing is waterproof? And do you need somewhere to change and leave cases?

That last one gets forgotten and then becomes a problem on the day. A group of eight arrives with eight instrument cases and eight bags, and they need a room, not a cupboard.