Commencing at 2 p.m. sharp, a series of eight mini-concerts delighted the audience, with each band being allowed to play up to 20 minutes of music to showcase highlights from their current repertoire. Following the Amsterdam Staff Band, who we had just played with two nights earlier, we were the second group to take to the stage, presenting The Gathering, O Magnum Mysterium and Rejoice! What a thrill for those of us for whom this was the very first time playing in the Royal Albert Hall. 

In the evening, some 5,000 ticketholders returned for a massed bands festival – among them the General, the Chief of the Staff and territorial leaders from the United Kingdom Territory. The visiting bands each made a triumphal entry from around the hall, behind their Salvation Army and national flags, to the playing by the ISB of Emblem of the Army. ISB Bandmaster Stephen Cobb welcomed the international and territorial leaders, and gave a particularly warm welcome to former ISB members and leaders.



Throughout the night each staff bandmaster took the baton to lead the massed bands, with a variety of new items being premiered, including Peter Graham's Prelude and Fugue on Sine Nomine, a reworking of Bill Himes' So Glad!, featuring eight flugel horn soloists (one from each band), a bright upbeat number entitled Dance-Beat by Paul Sharman, a large-scale festival work by Dudley Bright, Pursuing Horizons, and a benediction by Andrew Mackareth based on the hymn tune St. Clements. The ISB presented several items on their own, including a new euphonium solo Scottish Folk Variants by Stephen Bulla and featuring Derick Kane. The International Staff Songsters also contributed to the evening.

The evening concluded with the festival march Celebration, a fitting conclusion to a day of celebration. As fireworks went off and a large Salvation Army flag descended from above the stage, the bands sang out: "We'll keep the old flag flying, flying round the world."