A town orchestra says their audience will only get secular festive tunes this year.
Northampton Concert Band says it’s been gathering feedback from the community over the years.
It claims a survey of last year’s programme showed that carols scored consistently low in terms of audience enjoyment.
It says it doesn’t want people to feel ‘press-ganged’ into singing.
So this year their concert, held at the Holy Sepulchre Church, will consist of instrumental seasonal songs, such as ‘Walking in the Air’ and ‘Fairytale of New York’.
Concert Manager, Brian Crutchley, says church goers felt pressured to sing along, making them ‘uncomfortable’:
“I can understand that a lot of people do not enjoy singing in public, even with such a great band accompanying them.
“With the feedback we’ve had from our survey, we thought we’d drop carols from the concert altogether, which leaves room for other popular music for our audience to listen to.
He added, “If people want to sing carols, they’re better off going to a carol service.”
Stephen Bell, the band’s musical director promised they wouldn’t be “short-changing” their audience:
“They will still get two hours of top entertainment. The band will be performing some ‘lighter’ repertoire along with some well-known seasonal music.”
The band has 40 members and was originally formed by a group of First World War ex-servicemen in 1919.