One of Australia’s most renowned bagpipe bands, The Rats of Tobruk Memorial Pipes and Drums, has been invited to perform at the First International Mediterranean Festival of Arts in Heraklion, Crete, later this year.

The festival, in its first year, has been organised to promote the historical and cultural heritage of Crete and Greece and also make Heraklion and Crete an influential cultural centre in both the Mediterranean region, and the rest of the world.

President of the Rats of Tobruk, Ken Butterworth, said it would be an honour to represent Australia at the festival.

“Playing for an international audience is magic, just mind blowing,” he said. “We started off predominantly in Victoria and would sometimes play interstate, but the biggest step was performing at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in 1988 and it just snowballed from there.”

Formed in 1960, the 30 member band has performed at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo six times, in 1988, 1994, 1997, 2001, 2005 and 2008.

In 2007 the band performed at the inaugural Russian Kremlin Zoria on Red Square, Moscow and in 2009 they appeared at the Libyan Military Music Festival. Following this tour in September 2009 the band travelled to Tobruk to hold a Memorial Service at the Tobruk War Cemetery.

In 2010 the band performed at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Sydney and the Basel International Military Tattoo in Switzerland.

Mr Butterworth, who has been a band member since 1966, said most of the members have been part of the band for 15 years on average. However, there are three band members as young as sixteen years of age. The group practices every week, in Wantirna, in Melbourne’s east, with some members travelling from as far as Sale for the weekly rehearsals.

In the past the group has had to turn down invitations to play in Las Vegas and Moscow due to financial and time constraints. “What people may not realise is we are a civilian band, this is a hobby, we’re not professionals, we all have jobs outside of this,” Mr Butterworth said.

The group is unable to fund travel expenses to Greece, which will cost around $2400 per person, and is calling for any financial contributions or sponsorship from the Greek community in order to make the trip to Crete to play alongside performers from thirty countries including the USA, New Zealand, Russia and Africa.

“This year marks the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Crete during World War II, and as Australians we have that link back to the war,” Mr Butterworth said. “We would love to be part of the festival and represent the Greek community in Australia.”

For more information on the Rats of Tobruk, visit
www.rotmpd.org.au/, or phone Mrs Mary Butterworth on
(03) 9401 2580.
For more information on the First International Mediterranean Festival of Arts in Crete, visit: www.militfest.com/crete_2011