A symphonic youth band has invited its former members to a party to celebrate its 20th anniversary.

Bingley-based Hot Aire will be celebrating the anniversary with a party in January and has appealed to the musicians who have come up through the band to return for the event.

This year the band has completed a tour to Orkney to raise £600 for the Royal National Lifeboats Institution – a trip which was one of the highlights of the band’s history, according to chairman Ian Walker.

Mr Walker, 50, of Great Horton, has been involved with the band for five years since his two sons James and Ben started playing with them.

He said: “Often bands come and go – you set something up and it falls away. But there has been a core group of people who have stuck together.

“And there are two ladies, Sam Scott and Jo Nash, who have been there from the start. I would say 20 years is quite an achievement of keeping together.”

The age of band members ranges from eight to 70 and there are currently 30 regular players.

Mr Walker said: “The large proportion of players are the younger ones who are in their teens, but there’s quite a few retired folk as well.

“For some people the band is very much part of their lives, it’s very important to them, so it serves as a social function as well.”

The band will be holding its party on Saturday, January 24, in Heaton.

The band rehearses every Saturday from 9.55am until 12.15pm, during term-time at Cottingley Village Primary School.

The band plays a range of music from films, shows, contemporary pieces and special arrangements for the group.

It also has a more serious catalogue of tunes for occasions such as supporting the British Legion by providing marching music at the Cenotaph in Myrtle Park on Remembrance Sunday, as it has done for many years.