Drum stick shortage threatens village music festival

drumstick

Dr Evans warned ‘the tip can go off if you rub it’

A world-wide shortage of drum sticks has led to the cancellation of the Harold Music festival just days before the event is set to get underway.

Josh Fenning, drummer with local thrash metal band ‘Methyl Bromide’, says he has been without a drumstick for over two weeks and has no idea when he will be able to play his drums again.

Josh reckons that on average he gets through around 20 drum sticks a night, mostly left-handed ones which he normally buys from a specialist dealer on eBay.But it’s not just young Josh and his bandmates that have been affected by the shortage.

Edward ‘Teddy’ Taylor from The Big Brass Allstars told the Evening Harold they too had been unable to rehearse for the big day after his pet labrador Rusty chewed through the pommel on his last remaining stick.

The shortage has been caused by the closure of one of Thailand’s leading percussion accessory manufacturers after a box containing drum sticks exploded, killing 78 workers.

Festival organiser Nick Stalling has launched an appeal asking Harold residents to search their attics and broom cupboards for any old drum sticks they might have lying around.

“So far we’ve managed to raise three drum sticks”, said Nick. “I think we probably need something like 40-50 before the festival can go ahead, so some of the drummers may have to share. It’s not perfect but at least it means that Harold gets its music festival.”

“We don’t want a repeat of last year’s Book Festival, when nobody in Harold had got a book.”