At the HMA Area 8 Festival in Omaha, we told lots of people: “You’ll find all that information on our website!” We’ve now put all the information together in one place, to make it easy to find.
Bass Handbell Techniques
If you were at Larry’s class on Bass Techniques, or Bass Layout/Teamwork, and you’d like to learn more, you can find out everything you need to know and more by reading The Bass Ringer’s Notebook. This book is available for purchase from Choraegus. If you order a copy, wherever you are, you’ll be able to hear us rejoicing here in Michigan. We’ll lovingly package up your book, and will make a special trip to the Post Office to mail it to you. Truly, we will appreciate you forever. If you missed Larry’s classes, maybe it’s even more important to buy his book!
The Bass Ringer’s Notebook – 2nd Edition. So much prettier than the 1st edition!
British-Style Four in Hand Ringing
If you went to one of Carla’s British-Style Four-in-Hand classes, and your hands forgot everything the minute you left the room, or if you missed the classes but still have some curiosity about this strange alternative multiple bell technique – do not fear. You can find more information (with extra pictures) in this detailed article on our site. If you’re wondering where you can find that free download of Happy Birthday to practise your newfound skills without spending any money, you can find it here!
Adventures in 8-Bell Music
If you enjoyed our 8-bell music class on Saturday morning, or if you missed it and would like to know more, you can find lots of 8-bell music available for purchase from Choraegus. Please note that our sheet music is designed to be downloaded and printed out by YOU. We recommend reading our step-by-step guide to make the process easier. Don’t sit and wait for the music to arrive by mail, because it won’t reach you that way. Once you’ve purchased the music, you are allowed to print out a certain number of copies for your group. Don’t pay for more copies than you need!
Questions about anything in our classes?
If you have questions about anything you heard in any of our classes, or anything you wish we’d covered, or problems with any of the techniques we demonstrated, you’re always welcome to get in touch with us.
Our 8-Bell Duet Concert
Many of the pieces we performed at our lunchtime concert on Friday are available for purchase and download from Choraegus. A few of the pieces haven’t yet been published – for example Creator of the Stars of Night and Calliope House. However, we plan to make them all available before the end of this year. We’re hoping to get new Advent and Christmas pieces published by the end of August, once we’re back from our annual trip to the Bay View Week of Handbells.
We had so much fun at the HMA Area 8 festival! Several people asked us if we’re available for further concert performances, and events such as worship services and weddings. The answer is yes, we are, so if you’re interested in booking us for an event in the future, please contact us!
Our 8-Bell Duet Concert at the Area 8 festival
BronzeFest
We had a great time with the Area 8 BronzeFest Ensemble – Larry directing and Carla playing. Three of the pieces performed in the concert were original compositions written by Larry. You can find A Minor Crash, Rescue and The Final Crossing on our music site, along with many other compositions and arrangements for handbell choir. We’re also pleased to be able to present Susan T. Nelson’s beautiful Elysium, which was also performed by the BronzeFest Ensemble.
Any questions about our music?
If there’s anything you’d like to ask, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to help!
We enjoyed our trip to the Area 8 Festival in Omaha!
The last time we’d been in Omaha was for the River City Radical Ring in 2013. We were very happy to be invited back to direct, perform and teach at the 2018 event. Besides, what’s not to love about a 600-mile road-trip?
Larry just loves a road trip!
Lots of driving!
The journey from Holland, Michigan took us more than ten hours, and we were glad we’d decided to travel the day before the festival! We arrived in Omaha in plenty of time to enjoy an evening concert by Rezound! Handbell Ensemble before settling in for the night.
We made it to Omaha!
Music and classes at the Bring It! Ring It! festival
The festival began on Thursday. Larry was looking forward to directing the BronzeFest ensemble, preparing for a Saturday afternoon concert. The chosen pieces for BronzeFest were: Festival Sanctus (Cathy Moklebust), Elysium (Susan T. Nelson), Rescue (Larry Sue), Sympatico (Jason Krug), Song of the Flowers (Kevin Mazimas Ko), The Final Crossing (Larry Sue) and A Minor Crash (Larry Sue).
With repertoire like that, there was work to do, but it was wonderful to see how well prepared the BronzeFest participants were. It meant that we could use our limited rehearsal time together to do more than just learn notes. Much progress was made between the first rehearsal on Thursday and the concert on Saturday.
The Area 8 Board of Directors had done a great job of organizing for festival participants to be able to attend a wide variety of classes in addition to rehearsals. There were classes with such titles as “Processionals”, “In-Depth Score Study”, “If Bells Grew on Trees” and “There’s More than One Way to Peel a Banana”. Carla taught several classes on British-Style Four-in-Hand Ringing, and Larry taught classes on Ringing Bass Bells and Bass Bell Layout.
One of Larry’s Bass Handbell Techniques classes
A concert by Timbré from California
Thursday ended with a banquet for all festival participants, followed by a concert presented by Timbré, a lyrical percussion ensemble based in Southern California. Their program, entitled “She Dreams the Stars” featured poetry, live and electronic music, and dance, telling the story of a young woman on a journey of discovery. The show was entertaining and thought-provoking, the costumes were sparkly, and it was good to see our friends from Timbré again. Some of them had played handbells at our wedding in California back in 2012!
Timbré – She Dreams the Stars
Our handbell duet concert
Friday was the day of our own 8-bell duet concert. We’d chosen some of our favourite pieces from the repertoire we’d used for the opening concert at the Area 5 Festival on Mackinac Island earlier this year.
Our 8-Bell Duet Concert at the Area 8 festival
The pieces we played were: Creator of the Stars of Night, Holy Manna, Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise, What Child Is This, Sakura, I Vow to Thee, My Country, Calliope House and To God Be the Glory – all arranged by Larry Sue, and all using only 8 bells each (but not necessarily the same eight!) We appreciated the kind and positive comments we received after our concert. It was interesting to find that there were many people who hadn’t previously imagined that so much music could be made using so few bells!
Showcase concerts
On Friday afternoon, we enjoyed a showcase concert – by Des Moines Concert Handbells (directed by Patrick Gagnon) and A Lovely Shade of Blue Handbell Duet. Lauren and Eric are skilled musicians, and most of their pieces used three octaves of bells. However, their first piece was our 8-bell arrangement of Angus MacDonald’s lively slip jig Chloe’s Passion. Our only regret from the festival is that we didn’t find a few spare moments to try playing it together as a double duet!
Yay! Two handbell duos in the same place!
Adventures in 8-bell music!
Saturday was the final day of the festival. Our day started at the ridiculously early time of 8:00am, so we needed coffee for our “Adventures in Eight-Bell Music” class! We enjoyed introducing people to the idea that it’s not always necessary to use dozens of bells to make music that’s worth listening to.
Larry directs a read-through of “Kingsfold” at our 8-Bell Music class on Saturday morning
We enjoyed a HymnFest presented by River City Ringers, directed by Joyce Miller. The group had commissioned a piece from Cathy Moklebust in Joyce’s honor, and had somehow managed to rehearse it in secret. What a wonderful surprise that turned out to be!
After one more rehearsal, it was time for the BronzeFest concert, which was so much fun! All seven pieces went well, and we think (hope!) everyone enjoyed the experience. Here’s a recording of the final piece in the program – Larry’s original composition A Minor Crash:
Special thanks go to Alex Guebert for writing and playing a cajon part for A Minor Crash, and to Lily Acatina, who stepped in at the last minute to sight-read the trumpet part in The Final Crossing on keyboard. Both these musicians are members of Timbré, and we appreciated their willingness to share their talent at short notice.
The final festival concert
After the BronzeFest concert, we had just one more class each to teach, then we were free to relax at the Festival Concert, directed by Tim Waugh and Barbara Meinke. The festival participants performed a varied concert of music ranging from O Worship the King (Michael Mazzatenta) to the Sesame Street Theme (Michael Glasgow) – and we enjoyed it all! The concert was accompanied by the buzzing of various audience members’ phones, as flash-flood warnings appeared and thunder rumbled overhead! We finished the evening with a reception and an opportunity to catch up with some of the friends we hadn’t seen for a while – including Tim Waugh. He and Carla had previously met at a handbell event in England in 2009!
With Tim Waugh at the end of the festival
Thanks to everyone involved!
Our thanks go to the Handbell Musicians of America Area 8 Board for inviting us to be part of this wonderful event. Thanks also to everyone who participated in the BronzeFest Ensemble or attended our classes. We felt very welcome as visitors to HMA Area 8. We hope we won’t have to wait another five years before we make it to Nebraska again!
We’ll be presenting a short 8-bell duet concert on Friday, June 29th at 12:00pm, at Bring It! Ring It! – the 2018 Handbell Musicians of America Area 8 Festival in Omaha, Nebraska. We only have half an hour at lunchtime for this concert, so we’re including just a few of our favorite pieces. There will be a mixture of well-loved hymns, traditional melodies, and an Advent carol thrown in, even though it’s completely the wrong time of year for it. Here’s the program!
If you can’t be at the concert…
We hope to see you at the concert! If you won’t be at the Area 8 Festival, you might enjoy our YouTube channel, where you’ll find lots of our handbell duets.
Alternatively, why not consider hosting a handbell concert? We can bring a concert of handbell duets to your church, and combine it with playing during a worship service. When you book us for a concert, we take up less room than a traditional handbell choir, and we bring everything we need with us. We have a wide repertoire of hymns and traditional tunes to entertain your audience. Take a look at our reviews, and contact us if you’d like to book us for your event!
It was an honor for us to be invited to be guest artists at the Handbell Musicians of America Area 5 Spring Festival on Mackinac Island. We were excited to go back to the island! We’d only visited a couple of times before – in 2010 and 2013 – and hadn’t stayed for more than a few hours.
No cars on Mackinac Island!
One of the unusual things about Mackinac Island is you can’t drive your car there! Motorised vehicles have been banned since 1898. For this reason, our journey there began by parking our car in Mackinac City and taking the ferry across to the island.
Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island – seen from the ferry!
Being West Michigan’s smallest handbell choir has its advantages. We didn’t need to transport tables, foam pads and multiple cases of bells over to the island. We had just one handcart loaded with our equipment, and we pushed it all the way from the ferry dock, up the hill to Grand Hotel.
On our way to Grand Hotel for the Handbell Musicians of America Area 5 Festival!
We arrived at Grand Hotel on Thursday morning and the staff instantly made us welcome. The hotel hadn’t officially opened for the 2018 season yet. We were fortunate to be able to stay there and enjoy the very special and unique atmosphere. We were also able to observe some of the preparations as the hotel staff prepared for the first guests of the season to arrive. The hotel has 393 guest rooms, and each one is decorated in its own individual style. If you like flowers (particularly geraniums), you’d love Grand Hotel!
Our room at Grand Hotel!
A handchime workshop at the school
Thursday afternoon’s adventure involved some handbell education! We went to Mackinac Island Public School, where a group of us presented a program of music on handbells, flute and keyboard. The event was coordinated by Martha Matthews, with Gary Matthews playing keyboard. Members of the Area 5 Board were also there, to supervise the students with the sets of chimes.
The students were each given a color-coded handchime to play. They were able to play chords to accompany “Amazing Grace” and “Jingle Bells”, with the aid of a chart showing coloured dots. It was wonderful to see the enthusiasm of the students as they played. For most of them, it was their first opportunity to play these instruments. They did very well, learning how to use the correct techniques for playing the chimes and stopping the sound afterwards.
We demonstrated several of our handbell duets for the students. Martha and Gary joined us to perform Silver and Bronze(for handbells and flute) and Ding Dong, Merrily on High(for handbells and piano, with additional soon-to-be-published flute part).
Performing for the students at Mackinac Island Public School
The festival begins!
Friday marked the start of the festival, and we enjoyed a wonderful evening meal at the hotel before performing the opening concert in the beautiful theatre there.
Here’s the list of pieces we played at the opening concert!
Performing a concert for an audience of “handbell people” can be an intimidating experience. There’s definitely some additional pressure involved when performing in front of people who know about handbell stuff! However, handbell people are, in general, a friendly and supportive group. We felt much more relaxed than we’d expected to during our concert. Afterwards, we were pleased to receive some really nice comments from audience members.
Teaching about 8-bell music
On Saturday morning, we had the opportunity to teach a class on 8-bell music. We were pleasantly surprised by how many people arrived for the class! We answered questions about our music, specific techniques involved in playing it, and how to buy our sheet music online. Participants enjoyed played some simple pieces such as Aura Lee, Kingsfold and The Water is Wide. Finally, they tried the more challenging I Saw Three Ships.
Our eight-bell music workshop at Grand Hotel. Did we mention the weekend involved lots of coffee?
Other classes at the festival
During the festival, participants had the chance to attend other interesting classes, such as Artistry and the Big Box of Crayons: Techniques for a Variety of Tone Color and Handbells: a Full-Body Sport, both led by Martha Matthews, Maori Sticks, led by Susan Oxley, Music Theory, led by Ann Wood, and Finale and Handbells, led by Judy Phillips. There was also FredChat – an opportunity to chat with guest conductor Fred Gramann. We enjoyed a fascinating tour of Grand Hotel, where we were able to find out more about the building and its history. We even saw “behind the scenes” in the impressive kitchen!
The closing concert
Throughout the weekend, rehearsals continued in the Grand Hotel Theatre, as the festival participants prepared five pieces, ready to perform at the closing concert. The massed ringing pieces were Acclamation in G Minor (Karen Thompson), Within the Darkest Night (Derek Hakes), Hosanna (Jason Krug), What Child is This (Brenda Austin) and Jubilation (Fred Gramann). Fred Gramann conducted the festival choirs during rehearsals and at the closing concert.
Festival choirs rehearse under the baton of Fred Gramann
Fred Gramann at the closing concert at the 2018 Area 5 Spring Festival
The closing concert was well attended, with audience members coming from Grand Hotel and the island. Afterwards we spoke to several people who had never heard handbells before, and wanted to hear more!
Leaving the island
We’d have liked to stay longer on the island, but we were playing duets in a worship service in Harbor Springs the following morning. We’d made plans to travel back on the 6:00pm ferry to Mackinac City. Before we left, though, we had time to walk for a while and admire the scenery. We followed a trail of steps, thinking it would lead to a beach. Maybe it would have done, but before we reached the bottom of the steps, the ground was covered in a thick (and sloping) layer of ice. It seemed that winter was as reluctant to leave the island as we were!
Enjoying a walk on the island after the festival
Handbells and equipment leaving the island
It was fun to see the handbell equipment at the Shepler’s ferry dock. Transporting bells, chimes and foam pads is an interesting challenge on an island that doesn’t allow cars. All the equipment had to come to and from the hotel on horse-drawn transport, and it was transferred onto luggage carts to be loaded onto the ferry. Our own equipment was much more manageable, and we were able to wheel our handcart onto the ferry ourselves.
Handbells and foam pads ready to go onto the ferry. Our own equipment is in the foreground.
Thanks to all at HMA Area 5
We had an amazing time at the Area 5 Spring Festival on Mackinac Island. Grand Hotel is a dream location for any conference or vacation. It’s a fascinating place, full of history, with people who go out of their way to make guests feel cared about. Our thanks go to the Handbell Musicians of America Area 5 for inviting us to be guest artists at this event. We appreciated the opportunity to stay at Grand Hotel and share our music with other handbell musicians and students on the island. We hope to go back there again someday!
Since moving to West Michigan, we’ve enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate with the Zeeland Community Band. It’s been fun to play our handbells in concerts and performances with this talented and enthusiastic group of musicians.
The Zeeland Community Band has been running since January 1994. The band aims to give adult musicians an opportunity to play their instruments in a band setting, even if they haven’t played since school or college. The group meets on Monday evenings in Zeeland, and Rose Wiersma is their director. They play at local events such as PumpkinFest, and regularly give performances at senior living communities. Don’t miss their popular Christmas concerts!
With director Rose Wiersma, December 2017
The band is planning some exciting concerts for the next few months, and we’ll be joining the group for some of the performances:
March 19th, 2018 at 6:30pm – A concert for residents and guests at Royal Park Place in Zeeland, MI (with handbells)
April 26th, 2018 at 7:15pm – A concert for residents and guests at Freedom Village, Holland, MI (No handbells in this concert)
April 30th, 2018 at 7:30pm – In concert with the Coopersville Community Concert Band in Zeeland, MI (with handbells)
Check our website and Facebook page for more details coming soon!
Today we took an exciting look back at one of our adventures from last summer. We had an opportunity to collaborate with internationally acclaimed Natalia Paruz. the Saw Lady! Natalia is New York City musician who specialises in playing the musical saw. She’s well-known for her NY subway performances!
We were all in New York City to participate in a concert given by Campanelli Handbell Ensemble, who were visiting the USA on tour from their home country of Estonia. Natalia was playing her musical saw for the solo part in Susan T. Nelson’s beautiful “Elegy”. We were playing the handbell duet part in a brand new composition “Mu Süda Ärka Üles“. After rehearsing with Campanelli and their director Inna Lai, we still had some time before the concert. We decided to read through our eight-bell arrangement of “Amazing Grace” together. This is the result:
Somewhere in our archives, we have recordings of a couple more pieces we played that afternoon, and we’ll share those soon! We very much enjoyed our musical collaboration with Natalia, and hope that someday we’ll have the opportunity to do it again!
With composer Susan T. Nelson and Natalia "Saw Lady" Paruz in NYC – July 2017
Yesterday we enjoyed taking part in Linda Strouf’s organ recital Around the Liturgical Year in Chorale Preludes. The recital took place at Grace Episcopal Church here in Holland, Michigan.
Linda has been an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music at Hope College since 1988. She is also the Minister of Music at Third Reformed Church, where she plays the organ and piano, and directs the two adult singing choirs and the adult handbell choir. Linda is a champion of newly composed, contemporary organ music. We were very excited to be part of this recital!
With Linda Strouf after the recital
Linda Strouf’s organ recital was an interesting and entertaining journey through the church year. The audience clearly enjoyed the music!
The three pieces we performed with Linda were: In the Bleak Midwinter, Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee and Calliope House. We first performed these pieces in California, with organist and composer T. Paul Rosas, who wrote the organ accompaniments. Handbells and organ blend well together!
In the Bleak Midwinter and Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee are available for purchase and download from Choraegus We haven’t yet published Calliope House, but watch this space!
Many thanks to Linda for inviting us to be part of this recital, and to everyone who attended!
It seems like only a short time ago that we were making plans for the run-up to Christmas. Suddenly, poof! December’s over, and our busy holiday season of performances is behind us.
We had an interesting time! Here are some of the highlights:
Candlelight services for Advent
Our Advent season started with two Christmas by Candlelight services – one in Marne and the other in Grand Haven. Both these evenings were beautiful; an opportunity for a community to come together and welcome the season with music and fellowship. Handbell music fits so perfectly for such occasions.
At the United Methodist Church of the Dunes, Grand Haven
More collaboration with the Zeeland Community Band
We joined with the Zeeland Community Band for another concert this holiday season. It’s fun to add our handbells to some of the band’s festive favorites. We can’t restrict ourselves to playing only 8 bells in each piece, so it’s quite a challenge too, switching bells frequently during pieces.
In concert with the Zeeland Community Band
A new challenge – playing handbells in the dark
We played an hour of soothing holiday music at Abrams Planetarium. This was part of the “Rest With Music: Goodnight Series” at Michigan State University. It was a very different kind of performance venue for us – playing in darkness while stars and snowflakes drifted above. The audience was there to relax, maybe even take a nap, and enjoy an hour of continuous music.
The challenges for us were: a) playing in darkness, with only a music-stand light to help us see the music; b) having to remove a sheet of music at the end of each piece and replace it with another one, and c) changing bells between pieces at top speed, so as not to interrupt the flow of music. We managed by taking an additional table with us. Once we’d finished playing a piece, Larry would continue to hold at least two notes, still ringing, while Carla pulled the score off the music stand and onto the extra table, leaving the next score ready to play. After a bit of practice at home, we were able to do this smoothly. We limited our key changes, and played pieces in “blocks” all in the same key, which kept the challenge of changing bells between pieces to a minimum. It was an enjoyable event, and we hope to go back to the Planetarium again in the future!
Community and church events
This season, we enjoyed presenting varied programs of Christmas and holiday music to community, charity and church groups in and around Holland and Grand Rapids. It’s always an interesting experience to talk about our bells and our music – and it’s fun to take questions from audience members, some of whom haven’t heard handbells before, or haven’t seen our 4-in-hand style of ringing.
A Christmas program for the Sallie Bender Guild of Spectrum Health
We also played at a couple of corporate holiday parties in Grand Rapids, where we greeted guests with Christmas carols!
Holiday party at the Van Andel Institute, Grand Rapids
Some of our most rewarding performances of the holiday season took place at senior living communities and nursing homes in our local area. We played carols for small groups of residents, and provided last-minute entertainment at a care home holiday party after the previously-booked entertainer cancelled.
We challenged ourselves, once again, to give twelve hours of our time to play Christmas carols at the Salvation Army Red Kettle. The Salvation Army does a lot of good work here in West Michigan – and we’ve spoken to people who have benefited personally from their help. So we were more than happy to offer our support to their Christmas fundraising campaign. We played four 3-hour sessions at our local D&W Fresh Market, and hope to do the same again next year.
Christmas handbell music in Downtown Holland
It was fun to play Christmas music in Downtown Holland too! We enjoyed giving two performances in Cherry Republic – one of our favorite stores on 8th Street. We also made our first appearance at the annual Kerstmarkt, on a chilly Friday evening. Playing handbell duets outdoors in cold weather is an interesting challenge. Thankfully, the snow hadn’t yet started to fall. Although we noticed some interesting differences in the pitch and ringing action of the bells, there was no lasting damage. We thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to be part of such a festive local event. We hope to be able to repeat the experience at the 2018 Kerstmarkt!
Our 2017 Christmas performance season ended at Ridge Point Community Church, where we played in their three Christmas Eve services. We also made our first visit to Christ Memorial Church, greeting people with handbell music as they arrived for services.
Our bells in the lights – Christmas Eve at Ridge Point Community Church, Holland
We’d like to thank everyone who helped to make our 2017 holiday season so memorable (and busy!). To everyone who booked us to provide entertainment, or came to one of our performances, we thank you. If you supported us during one of our Salvation Army sessions, or wrote a review – we appreciate that.
If you missed our holiday season performances this year, check our website and Facebook page for information about future events. Look out for us in Holland and beyond in 2018!
Our handbells have become a regular part of Zeeland Community Band performances since we moved to Michigan last year. We’ve joined in with their Christmas concerts and summer performances. Now we’re branching out! We’ll be guest artists in a concert with the Coopersville Community Concert Band at the end of this month. We’re looking forward to this new experience!
More information about the concert
October Incantations takes place on Monday, October 23 at 7:30pm, at the Coopersville High School Center Stage Theatre. Admission is free, but this community band will appreciate any donations to help with the cost of presenting this concert. The band will be performing many concert band favorites, including Radetzky March, Incantations and Dance, October, Palladio and Danse Macabre.
We’ll be playing our handbells, both with the band and on our own. We’re looking forward to adding some spooky tunes to the evening. The concert will also feature the first performance of the newly-formed Coopersville Community Choir. The band (and the handbell duo) will be in costume, and you are invited to attend in costume too. It’s an opportunity to dig out your Halloween clothes and join in the fun!
We recently celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary. What better way to celebrate than by spending a day at a handbell festival? First Congregational Church in Saginaw hosted a Fall Handbell Festival – Ringing in a New Season, and invited us to take part in the fun.
First Congregational Church – the venue for the handbell festival
Someone somewhere forgot to push the “It’s the fall season now!” button. That meant the weather was hot, hot, hot! Around 40 intrepid handbell musicians from churches around the area attended. We gathered together in a very warm church to rehearse and perform under the baton of world-renowned pianist and composer Catherine McMichael. Catherine had written two original compositions for the event, and Dr. Quincy Dobbs was there to play the organ.
Handbell workshops with bass and treble bells
Larry enjoyed the opportunity to get his hands on some bass handbells again. He led workshops for festival participants to find out more about bass bell techniques. Carla led well-attended workshops exploring some of the techniques and challenges involved in playing treble bells. We all enjoyed discussing the merits of various multiple bell techniques. Some of the treble ringers worked on weaving a series of bells without crossing their arms! That can be a challenge, but everyone did very well.
Our friend Kim Finison from Lansing (we know him from the Bay View Week of Handbells!) was on hand to help with handbell maintenance and repairs. We all enjoyed a wonderful lunch and great hospitality.
Larry enjoyed the opportunity to play bass bells again!
Thanks to all involved in making this festival happen!
We had a very enjoyable day at the festival. Our thanks go to Jeri at FCC and everyone involved with the huge task of organising the event. We hope to do it all again someday!
