the melbourne school bands/strings festival was a two-week program where school bands mainly from metropolitan melbourne, australia, as well as country victoria and interstate, gather to perform, listen and participate in tutorials. the festival has an education focus. all ensembles receive either a gold, silver, bronze, merit or participation shield. the melbourne school band festival is the brain child of barry croll and douglas heywood who created the idea and event under the music junction blackburn banner in 1989 to support the ongoing development of music education in schools. the festival was produced and sponsored by billy hyde music foundation, until their parent company billy hyde went into liquidation in 2012.