CONCENTRATION: Sarah White performs at the Royal South Street Eisteddfod with the Overnewton String Orchestra from Keilor.
THE battle of the bands is on — at South Street that is.The Royal South Street Society’s Freemasons Victoria Festival of Bands kicked off on Saturday and will run for an entire week.About 3500 secondary school musicians from more than 40 schools from across Victoria will compete in the festival, ranging from concert bands, to string orchestras and jazz ensembles.Royal South Street president Brian McInnis said it was a very high standard of competition, especially considering the age of the students.“You won’t believe the standard of the music, it is just amazing,” he said.“Just from listening, you would not know they were high school kids.”The festival will run until next Saturday and Mr McInnis encouraged the people of Ballarat to venture down to Her Majesty’s Theatre to have a look.“Music is a universal language. No matter where you are, a violin is a violin and the music is giving these kids a universal language,” he said.The 120th Royal South Street compeititions run until the end of October and will involve more than 10,000 competitors, making in excess of 40,000 performances.