The Central Ohio Brass Band hosted the fourth annual Ohio Brass Arts Festival. The event took place on Friday and Saturday in the auditorium at Weigel Hall.

Patrick Herak, 36, a performer in three of the groups Saturday, said the festival helped musicians make new contacts and friends and experience interesting works from similar bands. Also, performers got to share their music with people who have a similar enthusiasm for brass band music.

“We get to play for an appreciative and educated audience,” Herak said. “It’s one thing to play fluffy music because that’s what people like to hear in the summertime, but when you know you’re going to have a brass band audience, you can play more serious music.”

Groups participating in the festival included The Seymour Tower Brass, Chapel Brass, Brass Band of Columbus, Central Ohio Brass Band and a visiting group from the United Kingdom, St. Helen’s Youth Brass Band.

The most advertised feature of the festival was the youth band, a group with about 50 members who are between 12 and 19 years old. The young musicians performed music with talent that was praised by the veterans at the festival.

Songs switched from marches to show tunes, such as “Maria” from the musical “West Side Story,” music by Leonard Bernstein. Pop music was also played. Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” was one of the first songs performed on Saturday. Another style was hymns. These songs were common and appropriately addressed because of Easter Sunday the following day.

The bands ordered themselves and sat on chairs on stage in the auditorium. Some of the bands were large enough for the musicians to cover the entire stage, and other bands only had enough members to use the first row of chairs.

Directors of each band talked about the history of their groups and certain performance pieces.

After a group’s performance, the musicians stood for a final applause. Then, many joined the audience, waiting for the next performers.

George Zonders, 45, a musician in the Brass Band of Columbus, said brass bands are much more popular in Europe and Australia, but there is a following in the U.S.

“There were two main organizations which kept brass banding alive here in the U.S.,” Zonders said. “One of them is the Salvation Army … and the other, believe it or not, is the Ohio State University Marching Band.”