golden horseshoe music festival
for parents of participating students
HELLO From the organizers of the 2027 OBA/Golden Horseshoe Music Festival!
Your child/music student will be participating in our festival which runs from Tuesday, February 16 to Friday February 19, 2027 – at Mohawk College!
Please Join Us
Parents and family members are more than welcome to attend the festival. There is audience seating in all THREE main stage areas. Admission is BY DONATION.
Exact Location and Get Checked In/Getting Seated
The school is located at Mohawk College, 135 Fennell Ave West , Hamilton (Mountain)- PLEASE SEE DRIVING DIRECTIONS BELOW, which will guide you to the Lobby (Fennell Ave West entrance) of the McIntrye Performing Arts Centre (referred to as MPAC below) our headquarters and main entry to all 3 stages.
Once you arrive via the Fennell Ave entrance, and after a quick glass hallway, you will immediately see our Check In/Registration table on your right. Our staff will direct you to the correct stage (Stage A/Stage B/Stage C). You are welcome to go in to watch/hear other ensembles performing before your child’s performance. Please note, you can only enter the stage areas in performance breaks – please consult with the door person at each venue for further direction on this.
STAGE A: MPAC (tues-thurs only)
STAGE B: THE ARNIE (Mohawk Students Association Multipurpose Room) (all 4 days)
STAGE C: C066 (Floor 0, follow the signs, just underneath our reception area!) (tues-thurs only)
**If you park in P5 (the biggest/common lot) you will need to find your way to the F wing entrance and follow our signs towards our reception area. Just look for the jazz blue guy (our logo)!
THE SEQUENCE – (uses a 9:30 am performance as an example)
Each band goes through a sequence similar to this sample (it is basically a 2 hour sequence):
900 am Warm up room
930 am. Perform on stage
10 am. Move to clinic/session room for 30 minute clinic with guest adjudicator
1030 am Move to photography room for group/band photos
1045-1050 approximate finish time
There are no audience seats set up in the clinic rooms, and this is a secured environment for the students and teacher to learn, focus, and work with their clinician.
If you are waiting for your child during the 30 minute clinic, our recommendation is to remain at the performance stage, or check out the other concurrent stage to watch another school’s performance.
Professional Band Photos
Our photography partner, Wavelength Media will be onsite hosting our photo studio (which in most cases, per the sample above) happens one hour after the performance time.
The photos are of high quality with editing and printing done on the spot. We encourage you to consider purchasing photos as keepsakes for your student/family – The price per photo is $25.
Various payment options will be available onsite including a wireless card reader. Should you choose to purchase photos after the festival, there will be an online portal at ghmf.ca to do this.
**PLEASE NOTE – NO CELL PHONE PHOTOS ARE ALLOWED IN THE PHOTO STUDIO. IF YOU ARE COMING IN TO WATCH THE BAND HAVE ITS PHOTO TAKEN, PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO TAKE YOUR OWN PHOTO OF THEM ONCE THEY ARE SET UP. This is a skilled process which takes time, energy, and funding on the part of our photo partner, Wavelength Media and we encourage you to make the purchase if you’d like to have a photo for your family/household.
Food Services at Mohawk
We are quite excited to announce that the ON THE GO Cafeteria, located one floor below our registration area, will be open for lunch hours (11am-6pm at minimum) during the festival. If your child’s school is staying for a portion of the day, we encourage you to patronize these vendors (we will have a complete list sent out to your teacher before the festival). Alternatively if your student is bringing their own lunch, they can eat anywhere around the college, there are multiple large seating/table areas and since the festival is operating during the February STUDY WEEK break, we will have alot of the spaces to ourselves!
In addition to this, there will be two locations of Tim Hortons and a Pizza Pizza location open throughout the festival (Timmies has an earlier start of 8:00am-6:00pm)
Driving Directions:
The entire festival will be held at Mohawk College, 135 Fennell Ave West
We recommend that you use P5 or P7 parking lots, enter the building through the F wing doors, and follow our signage to reception. THE CLOSEST ROOM to our reception area is C124A. We are located behind the MPAC Concert Hall – but – very close to the Main “NORTH” Entrance of the college.
CLICK HERE FOR AN INTERACTIVE MAP OF THE CAMPUS
From the bottom of our hearts – THANK YOU for your support of music education. This festival would not be happening without the students’ support and encouragement from their families. Parents, siblings and friends play a vital role in the development and journey of a young musician.
At any time, please , should you have any additional questions about the festival (over and above the info which you’ve received from your music teacher), please feel free to reach out to us.
We can be reached at ghmf@onband.ca
