Bermuda hopes to make 100,000 new friends at a world-famous German music festival to be held at the end of this month.

The Bermuda Regiment Band & Corps of Drums, the Bermuda Islands Pipe Band, steel drummer Robert Symons and the Bermuda National Gombey Troupe have been invited to participate in the Bremen International Music Festival 2005, otherwise known as Musikschau der Nationen in Bremen, Germany with all transportation expenses paid.

The Festival is known as one of the most prominent indoor brass band music events in Europe. Since it began in 1965, dancers, singers and folklore groups from more than 70 nations have performed before an audience counting more than 963,000 spectators.

A total of 56 Bermudians will leave the Island for Germany on January 25. Over a period of eight days they will perform in seven shows. In each show they will get ten to 15 minutes of performance time and will also participate along with other countries in the festival?s opening and closing ceremonies.

?We are really going there to make friends for Bermuda,? said Bermuda Regiment Director of Music Major Barrett Dill. ?At those shows they are expecting well over 100,000 people and of course all the television rights after that. Bermuda should be very well on the map.?

He said this was a fine way to bring attention to the 40th anniversary of the Bermuda Regiment and 500th anniversary of Bermuda?s discovery by Juan de Bermudez.

?It is important that we show all of the diverse cultures of Bermuda,? he said. ?We are hoping that from the international point of view potential visitors will say ?Bermuda has been around for 500 years, it is about time we visited that island?.?

Major Dill said it was heartening that all transportation expenses were being paid by the festival organisers.

?It is a tribute to the show that they had invited us to the show with all-expenses paid,? he said. ?This is the first time in our history that an organisation that has asked us to perform has actually said that they would be responsible for transportation.

?Normally, it is up to the Bermuda side to come up with the financing. We were a little bit wary about that, but it was under the guise that there may be other expenses that we hadn?t anticipated when we get there.?

During the festival there will be a Bermuda booth with lots of brochures and giveaways to promote Bermuda. The Bermuda National Gombey Troupe also promises to be a popular attraction.

?The gombeys are always a huge draw,? said Major Dill. ?They are going to go around the hall performing and handing out fliers on Bermuda.?

The captain of the Bermuda National Gombey Troupe, Andre Place, said it promised to be a good experience for his gombeys.

?I know it will be cold over there,? he said with a laugh. ?Gombeys in the Bermuda National Gombey Troupe were selected from different gombey troupes all over the island. They represent the best of the best.?

?We are definitely ready to go,? he said.

David Frith, Pipe Major of the Bermuda Islands Pipe Band was also excited to be going, particularly since the band celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The Bermuda Islands Pipe Band were a popular sight at the Nova Scotia Tattoo held a few years ago.

?In 2003 when the Regiment went to the Edinburgh Tattoo, we were not included, which I think was a big mistake on behalf of the people from the tattoo,? said Mr. Frith.

He said sometimes the Bermuda Islands Pipe Band players felt their accomplishments were overshadowed by the activities of larger bands.

?In Nova Scotia, I thought the response to our performances was brilliant,? he said. ?We not only performed dressed in our formal attire, but we also did our own little ninety minute show dressed in Bermuda shorts. We played Calypso on the bagpipes. That went over quite well because there is no other pipe band in the world that does calypso.?

He said songs like ?All Day, All Night Mary Ann? were always a novelty when played on the bagpipes.

Mr. Frith ? who has been with the band since he was 13 ? admitted that it is becoming harder to get fresh blood into the band.

?It is a little bit more difficult now to get new members than it use to be, because all the kids in school have other outlets and musical instruments are rampant throughout the schools,? he said. ?When I was young this wasn?t so.?

Bermudians who were unable to travel to Germany for this musical event will be able to see it on television thanks to the efforts of Panatel VDS Ltd. Multimedia who will be recording the Bermudian performances.

?We started this initiative when my husband Reimar and I had the pleasure of viewing the Musikchau Der Nationen in Germany, and thought how great it would be if Bermuda could be represented one year,? said Wendy Fiedler of Panatel. ?We recommended the participation of the Bermuda Regiment Band to the organiser, Rolf Reimers.?

Mr. Reimers is the head of the German War Graves Commission. Money raised from the Festival goes to maintain war graves all over Europe.

?We sent him video footage of the band performing at Beat the Retreat ceremonies on Front Street that was shot by Panatel, and he was excited and issued a formal invitation for Bermuda to participate in 2004,? said Mrs. Fiedler. ?Unfortunately, the band was already committed to Edinburg in 2003, and 2004 was too soon, so the invitation was accepted to perform in January 2005.?