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Roland Festival UK Championships, Somerset – UKby Mike O'Regan |
The weekend September 5th to 7th 2008 saw the first Roland V-Accordion Weekend to be held in the UK at St Audries Bay in Somerset. A weekend of workshops and concerts, devoted to the Roland V-Accordion, was held followed by a competition to decide the UK entrant to the world-wide Festival to be held in Rome, Italy on November 8th. The clear winner of the competition was Johnny Lee Leslie, who was presented with a certificate and a new FR-7b V-Accordion by Guy Small of Roland UK (photo above). The winner of the Junior Competition was Soraya O'Connor, who received an FR-2 as her prize. Other graded open competitions were also held, featuring the V-Accordion, with prizes provided by The Accordion Shop, Trevani, and Carillon Studios. Following the competition, a group of V-Accordion players assembled for the accompanying photo - 16 players in one picture. Group of the Roland-Event Pariticipants ...here some names of the group: In the front with the button Roland is Johnny-Lee Leslie. Immediately behind him, with the dark glasses -John Romero, organiser of the event. On the front row (left to right) in the cap- Frank Moore and several of the Langton/Petulengro ladies (including the Junior Champion, Soraya O'Connor) . Mike Oregan on the far right. On the back row, directly above John Romero, is Robert Langton. Two places to the right of Robert , behind the white accordion, is Gennaro Fiondella (winner of the Senior Championship). The event was organised by John and Jackie Romero of Carillon Studios in conjunction with Roland UK. |