"The positive impact of the KBB Music Festival on our school is immeasurable. Our students and staff love being part of it every year, and we have a lot of them that do! Last year we had 8 ensembles (ca. 250 students) entering the festival and it was a highlight of the year for every student. I have taken students from this school to the KBB Music Festival for the last 20 years without exception (even during COVID in form of video submissions) and our school have been part of this since the very first year. We could not imagine a year without the festival on our yearly programme. The focus and pure joy festivals such as this provide for students is the reason we became music teachers. Next to the wonderful music making during the week, it is also a special highlight for me personally to see students from different schools interact maturely with each other, in full support of them playing at their best. I firmly believe that our Secondary School arts culture in Auckland (and beyond) would be significantly worse off if the festival would net be able to continue in the future."

Jazz Band Director / HoD Music / Instrument Tutor

"It has been a great way for students to get to play outside of the school environment and receive feedback from professionals, who evaluate the group as they are on the day & out of their regular environment."

Percussion and Drum Tutor

"I struggle to imagine what music at my school would be like without the KBB Festival. Playing in front of our peers and adjudicators in a magnificent venue like the Cathedral legitimizes everything we do. I no longer have to convince my students that ensemble playing is worthwhile; the annual KBB Festival provides them with so much focus and purpose."

Concert Band Director

"The KBB Music Festival has spent decades helping local students engage deeply with music-making and connect with Auckland's creative community. There is nothing else quite like it in New Zealand's educational landscape, and it plays a vital role in helping school music departments build vision and drive student success."

Music Director / Past Participant

"The festival is run so well and the team of volunteers are just outstanding - we love the support from the crew in set up and feel the team makes the event so slick! well done to you all for the incredible work that goes in behind the scenes."

Music HoD

"Performance venues are excellent with great help from sound technician in St Mary's for Jazz Bands. Love the verbal feedback and being able to hear the group in the background while the comments are being said, definitely to keep this process for future years."

Jazz Band Director

"The KBB Music Festival has been a hugely valuable milestone for our ensembles at our school. It is a fantastic opportunity for students to perform in the public, get valuable feed-back and most importantly, see students from other schools perform. This is so valuable in fostering a sense of community. I am also a past participant of the competition, and it definitely played a part in my development as a young musician."

Jazz Band Director / Classroom Teacher / Past Participant

"KBB Music Festival provides an opportunity to students to work together, develop as musicians, and connect with school in a way that creates a lasting impact in our community. The experience of performing in professional venues, getting feedback from expert adjudicators, and hearing other schools and students is invaluable and contributes to the strong engagement we have in instrumental music at our school."

HoD Music / Jazz Band Director / Concert Band Director

"A positive and significant goal for co-curricular ensembles to aim towards, experiencing other groups performances, and a magnificent venue to perform at. Fantastic organization, tip-top communication, all in all so good for staff, students and the community!"

HoD Music

"Most of the students in my band have learned their instruments for the first time at high school, and KBB provides an enriching performance opportunity for them. They are also awed by the other bands and schools that perform, and leave the festival filled with wonder, questions, and most of all, pride in themselves."

Concert Band Director

"2026 is the first time that Tironui Music Trust has ensembles performing as part of the KBB Music Festival. Our students and families are so excited to perform at the festival as it has such a great reputation across Tāmaki Makaurau, and is seen as a huge milestone and opportunity to share the great music making happening across our schools in South Auckland."

Conductor & GM | Tironui Music Trust

"Love the verbal feedback and being able to hear the group in the background while the comments are being said, definitely to keep this process for future years."

Festival Participant

"Thank you for all of the work that you do to provide such a wonderful festival for students to enjoy! You are highly organised and the KBB Music Festival runs incredibly smoothly because of all your mahi. You are greatly appreciated!"

HoD Music

"KBB Music Festival provides our big band with one of the main focuses for the year. The students look forward to both competing in the festival and to hearing bands from other schools. It is an essential music festival for schools in Auckland and wider afield too."

Jazz Band Director

"For a small school that is trying to grow their music program, the KBBMF is a really important fixture in our music calendar. It is an opportunity for our groups to hear other schools and see what is possible with hard work and dedication, as well as feel the magic of performing for an appreciative audience."

HoD Music

"Always a highlight of the school year, the KBB Festival combines an aspirational goal for my students to strive for with a genuine period of collective joy with all these young musicians coming together. If you ever want to see just how amazing the youth of our country are, just come along and watch them in action at KBB! We are away at band camp as I type, getting ready to play our absolute best and all the students are super-excited and working hard. Our school is highly diverse and nearly all our band and orchestra members pick up their instruments at school, so we really appreciate the chance to play in such a prestigious yet supportive environment."

Jazz Band Director / String Orchestra Director / HoD Music

"The KBB Music Festival provides a significant focus for our students, where they are able to share their own musical achievements and celebrate those of their peers. It is a rare thing these days to have such a high calibre festival for schools in such a geographically close area. At the top end we see and hear what can only be described as world class for high school students. At the lower end we experience young students starting out on their musical journey's, who cannot help but be inspired by what they are surrounded with. It is unsurprising that so many schools from around the country try to get in on the KBB Music Festival action and that the Festival is fully subscribed year after year."

HoF - Performing Arts / Band & Orchestra Director

"The KBB music festival is a key motivator for many of our young musicians. It is such a great way to share the joy of music with other schools and to hear the great work that other departments are doing. The KBB music festival gave me my first performance opportunities as a student and led me to a lifelong passion for music and education. The KBB music is one of my biggest highlights from my time in school and I know it is the same of countless other past and present students. The KBB music festival is a vitally important part of the Calendar year and would be such a loss for all musicians."

Jazz Band Director / Past Participant

"Thank you for all of the work that you do to provide such a wonderful festival for students to enjoy! You are highly organised and the KBB Music Festival runs incredibly smoothly because of all your mahi. You are greatly appreciated! :)"

Festival Participant

"KBB gives our students a goal to work towards throughout the year. It is the highlight of the bands and orchestras year. It is also an inter-school opportunity for the arts that isn't replicated else where. The community that is created and the standard that is shared across the week is inspiring for our students."

Music Teacher / Band & Orchestra Director

"KBB music festival has been the highlight of my high school life as our ensembles work towards performing in such a wonderful environment near the end of the year. A great chance for musicians from different schools to meet."

Past Student Participant and Current Ensemble Director/String Tutor

"First-class, well done and thanks for all the hard work from the Committee, other volunteers and sponsors."

Festival Participant

"I personally want to thank the KBB Music Festival Committee for their hard work in planning and running the festival. As always, it was a wonderful event for our students, giving them opportunities outside what we can supply and providing a great platform for networking and sharing among both staff and student bodies. First-class, well done and thanks for all the hard work from the Committee, other volunteers and sponsors."

Symphony Orchestra Director

"There is nothing like the KBB Music Festival available to schools and students in the country, especially large ensembles. KBB is a platform for students to excel at the very highest level but also meet and work alongside students from other school, backgrounds and abilities. The KBB Music Festival is very well supported by our senior leadership and school community."

HoD Music / Band Leader

"It provides great motivation for our performers to aim high. It's also great that they get inspired by what other schools are doing."

HoD Music

"As a teacher with over 25 years entering groups into this Festival I testify that there is nothing like it in the Upper North Island - it is the one, single, only, sole event which makes friendly, supportive, high-achieving music possible for young people at an accessible cost. Since the cost-driven abandonment of the 83-year APPPA Festival for primary schools in Auckland, many of our rangitahi face the possibility of never participating in an art-music Festival. This event has more participants than Chamber Music NZ Competition and more than Smokefree Rockquest."

HoD Music / Band Director / NZQA / UofA / Previously Education Manager at NZMC

"Grow instrumental student number and develop instrumental music further. A great performing opportunity for school ensemble to work towards in August. Perform at beautiful Holy Trinity Cathedral & receive detailed constructive feedback from adjudicators."

HoD Music / School Ensemble Director

"The KBB Music Festival gives our students the invaluable experience of working towards a shared goal, raising their musical standards, and developing a sense of belonging within a wider musical community alongside students from other schools. It also provides the inspiration that comes from hearing and being heard by others. In preparing for the festival, students learn discipline, time management, collaboration, leadership, and the grit required to work consistently towards excellence."

Director of Music

"KBB Music festival has become the focal point for our year. Our Far North students appreciate the opportunity to showcase their hard work with some of the best young musicians in the country. Our School, Kaitaia College, is now in its 5th year of participating."

Jazz Band Director

"Papatoetoe High school has had a bit of an on and off relationship with KBB but has managed to consistently attend for the last 5 years. We would usually pick up commended awards, it was just about being there, and we were welcomed with our beginners players. Last year at the 2025 festival our school won the Chairpersons Command Performance Award. We also picked up a silver for our Jazz Band, Papatoetoe High School's best result ever, I burst into tears when they announced it. There are few schools from our area involved in this festival. However, our students were validated, they felt like they belonged amongst some of the more elite jazz band programs. We are so proud of our students. Without this music festival we would need to consider traveling out of Auckland to perform at festivals, and the likelihood of that happening for a school of our equity index are quite slim. This festival is the stage for us."

Jazz Band Director

"I am hugely appreciative of all the work the committee do in organising and running the Festival. I thought it ran very smoothly. Thank you."

Concert Band Director

"The festival is run so well and the team of volunteers are just outstanding - we love the support from the crew in set up and feel the team makes the event so slick! well done to you all for the incredible work that goes in behind the scenes."

Festival Participant

"I personally want to thank the KBB Music Festival Committee for their hard work in planning and running the festival. As always, it was a wonderful event for our students, giving them opportunities outside what we can supply and providing a great platform for networking and sharing among both staff and student bodies."

Festival Participant