City Hall Christmas event draws crowd

Brandon City Hall was filled with music, conversation and holiday cheer Sunday afternoon as more than 200 residents gathered for the annual City Hall Christmas Open House.

The seasonal event transformed the civic building into a festive community space, featuring performances by the Brandon Community Orchestra and the Suzuki Strings program, alongside light refreshments.

Mayor Jeff Fawcett said the open house has long been a tradition at city hall.

“It’s always existed as a seasonal open house — a reason to get people into city hall, listen to some music and just generally enjoy it,” he told the Sun. “It’s the people’s building.”

Fawcett estimated a “strong turnout” of 200 to 250 people attended.” He said that favourable weather likely contributed to this year’s crowd, compared to last year when heavy snowfall made travel more difficult. “It’s always a good crowd,” he said. “The weather played no role this year, which made it much better.”

Providing much of the afternoon’s soundtrack was the Brandon Community Orchestra, led by conductor Nikki Boylan-Currie. She said the group’s Christmas performance represents months of preparation.

“I start picking music around August, and we rehearse from September to December for our Christmas concert,” she said. “It’s a community volunteer group, so sometimes it can be challenging, depending on which instruments we have, but we usually make it work.”

Boylan-Currie praised the musicians’ performance, crediting the audience for helping set the tone. “They were absolutely fantastic today,” she said. “There was a lot of energy in the room, and they really picked up on that. Hearing the crowd and seeing their reactions is always a big factor — musicians feed off the energy of the room.”

Also performing were students from the Suzuki Talent Education program conducted by Robert Richardson. The young musicians were navigating a busy performance schedule, having already played multiple concerts over the weekend.

“I see the kids every week for two to three hours, plus they have private lessons, so they’re rehearsing constantly,” Richardson said.

Despite missing nearly half their players due to illness, Richardson said he was pleased with the performance.

“It’s a very different ambiance — the room is very alive, and it’s hard to hear each other — but they did well,” he said. “They’re not just performing for their parents. It’s very motivational.”

Beyond the music, Richardson said, there are deeper lessons attached to the event. “The kids see what happens when they grow up — that music is for life,” he said. “You might become anything, but you can still play music together. Seeing multiple generations perform is really special.”

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