Brassband Bacchus Secures Silver at World Music Contest
Brassband Bacchus from Lennik, Belgium, has secured a silver medal at the 75th edition of the World Music Contest (WMC) in Kerkrade, Netherlands, reaffirming the band’s position among the global brass band elite. The defending world champions narrowly missed retaining their title by a razor-thin margin of just 0.27 percentage points.
Brassband Bacchus group photo following their silver medal achievement at the World Music Contest in Kerkrade. (Credit: Emotions On Stage)
A Prestigious Stage
The WMC, held every four years in Kerkrade, is one of the most prestigious international competitions for harmony, fanfare, and brass bands. According to the official WMC website, the 2026 edition marked the contest’s 75th anniversary and featured eight competing bands from Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and France in the First Division. The anniversary edition introduced enhancements including live-stream broadcasting, travel subsidies, and prize money.
A Band with a Storied History
Founded in 1998 by conductor Bart Van Neyghem in Lennik, a small town in Flemish Brabant, Brassband Bacchus began as a modest brass ensemble before growing into an internationally recognized force. Under Van Neyghem’s leadership, the band has won WMC titles in the 3rd, 2nd, and 1st divisions across different editions. Their crowning achievement came in 2022 when they claimed the world championship in the First Division with a score of 95.50%, as Het Laatste Nieuws reported.
The Competition
On July 11, 2026, Brassband Bacchus took to the stage in Kerkrade with a demanding program featuring Bart Wuilmus’s “Evensong” as the set-work, followed by Lucy Pankhurst’s “Ghosts of Industry” and Stijn Aertgeerts’s “Afterlife.” The results, announced the following day, placed the Belgian band second with a score of 95.36% — just behind the Dutch champions Brassband Pro Rege Heerenveen, who scored 95.63% under conductor Jan Werkman.
Beyond the team achievement, solo alto horn player Algirdas Gricius was named Best Soloist of the competition, and the band received the Outstanding Section award.
Voices from the Band
Speaking to VRT NWS, band spokesperson Dimitri Deneve said: “We achieved a splendid 2nd place and did only 0.27 percent worse than the new world champion Brassband Pro Rege from the Netherlands. With a score of 95.26 percent, we have once again proven that we belong among the world elite.”
On Gricius’s soloist award, Deneve added: “That is a beautiful individual recognition, but also an acknowledgment for the whole group. It shows the strong team spirit within the band.”
On its official website, the band published a message of gratitude: “Sincere congratulations go out to all musicians, the conductor, and the motivated working group. We also thank our sponsors and loyal supporters!”
Analysis and Significance
This silver medal marks Brassband Bacchus’s second consecutive top-two finish at the WMC, confirming that their 2022 world title was no aberration. The narrow 0.27% margin underscores the intensely competitive nature of the First Division, where the difference between victory and runner-up can come down to fractions of a point.
As Iwan Fox of 4barsrest noted, the prize winners “produced performances of real-time musical substance.” For a community band that began as a small brass ensemble in a Flemish town nearly three decades ago, this level of sustained international success is remarkable. The coverage from both VRT NWS, Belgium’s national public broadcaster, and HLN, the country’s largest newspaper, underscores the story’s national significance.
What’s Next
While Brassband Bacchus did not return home with the world champion’s pennant, their silver medal and individual accolades represent a powerful validation of the band’s enduring quality under Van Neyghem’s quarter-century of leadership. As the band looks ahead, questions remain about their next major competition and the level of financial support available for continued international participation. But for now, Brassband Bacchus has once again proven that a community brass band from a small Belgian town can compete — and excel — on the world stage.