Brass Band Festival always impresses

Rain plans were ready, but not needed this weekend, as the Great American Brass Band Festival had one of its best years ever — from both attendance and weather perspectives.

Zero rain and highs around 80 provided the perfect situation for the huge event, which, according to Executive Director Niki Kinkade, may have had the best attendance she’s ever seen.

As always, the festival brings with it a great atmosphere. Danville comes alive with all kinds of interesting people and music fills the streets.

The big crowds and colorful events made for great photography, too — examples of which you can see on page A8 today, all throughout yesterday’s newspaper and online at amnews.com.

We’re already looking forward to next year.

Water curtain too noisy

Weisiger Park renovations were completed just in time for the Brass Band Festival — officials cut the ribbon and turned on the much-heralded water curtain just a few hours before Bayou and Brass hit Main Street.

But soon the water curtain was turned off again, due to an apparently unforeseen problem: The water falling from the spigots into the grate on the ground was too noisy and interfered with brass bands’ performances.

This seems like it will be a continuous problem — any time a performance is held on the stage, the water curtain backing the stage will have to be turned off so the performance can be heard.

It’s an awkward and embarrassing problem for city officials to have overlooked in the design of the park. Everyone wants to say they live in a beautiful, attractive and unique city, so we totally understand the desire to create something breathtaking in Weisiger Park. But imagination may have gotten the better of Danville when it came to this.

We hope there are solutions available that can dampen or eliminate the noise while allowing the water curtain to continue operating, and we hope those solutions are not expensive ones that would substantially add to the cost of the park redesign.

Get well soon for Centre pair

Our thoughts and prayers are going to Centre College football defensive coach Carter Conley and a Centre football player who were injured last week in Ireland.

The pair were hiking on the Cliffs of Moher when they fell from the cliffs, sustaining serious injuries. They had to be airlifted from the area by the Irish Coast Guard and are now recovering in hospitals in Ireland.

The student is expected to be able to return to the U.S. this week; coach Conley may need remain for care in Ireland for another week or two.

Conley and the student were part of a group of about 200 Centre College football players, coaches and family members who visited Ireland to play a football game against the Belfast Trojans. The group also visited Danville’s Sister City, Carrickfergus.

We’re glad the Centre team made their trip and we’re sure they were great ambassadors for Danville, Kentucky and the U.S. We’re also glad that the outcome of the fall from the cliffs wasn’t worse — it certainly could have been.