The Croydon Music Festival itself has a long history dating back to 1912, with mixed fortunes over the years. However, during the last fifteen years, the Festival has grown from strength to strength, attracting increasingly more entries covering its twenty different sections, and with the standard of performances reaching an ever-higher calibre.

When the Crystal Palace was dismantled in Hyde Park after the Great Exhibition of 1851 and reassembled beyond Beulah Hill, its grand choral and instrumental concerts stimulated interest in music throughout South London, not least in Croydon. Since then, the musical scene in the Borough has lived through all kinds of fashions and changes with numerous musicians and local organisations maintaining the name of Croydon in artistic circles. The opening of the Fairfields Halls in 1962 provided a real fillip to the musical life of the Borough. The Croydon Youth Orchestra established by violinist, Ralph Nicholson, was one of the first youth orchestras in the UK, many of those players became leading members of renowned professional orchestras and ensembles.

In 2006, the steel band section of the festival supported by Mott Macdonald appears to have been given a new lease of life having suffered from a lack of participation in recent years with much more steel bands pledging to participate in 2007. This year’s event was held on Saturday 22nd April at the BRIT school – Britain’s leading state-funded school for the performing and creative arts. The Junior Group section was keenly contested by steel bands from the Falconbrook Junior School and St Jude’s Primary School directed by veteran steel band arranger Ricky Decairos, as well as the Comets Youth Steel Orchestra directed by Jason Butcher. The adjudicator was Brent Holder – World Steelband Music Festival champion soloist, visiting tutor for the CoMusica Project and Weekend School at Sage Gateshead, Newcastle and founder of the Caribbean Steel International steel band.

All participating bands had to play two tunes with playing time restricted to seven minutes.  Brent commented on the high standard of playing showed by all pannists and declared Comets Youth Steel orchestra the winners. After the competition, Comets Steel Orchestra whose aim is to promote the steel pan as a musical instrument in its own right entertained the audience.  See link for further coverage on event - http://www.panonthenet.com/articles/uk/2006/croydon.htm#pics