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Community. Margaret Mead said thoughtful, committed citizens could change the world. Mark Twain considered the brotherhood — and sisterhood? — of man our most precious possession. Niccolo Machiavelli indicated that while God creates humankind, those humans then choose each other, thus forming “community.”And it is community that founds, forwards, finances and fosters this weekend’s Great American Brass Band Festival, now in its 22nd year. Indeed, without a community of support, the festival would find itself floundering.“The Great American Brass Band Festival is all about community,” says Niki Kinkade, executive director of the festival. “The community makes this happen. ... We don’t exist outside the community.”The city and county governments as well as local businesses and individual local sponsors also keep the festival flourishing. Some of the donations are in-kind; some are monetary. Saturday night picnic tables, food vendors and T-shirt sales also bring in a chunk of money for the festival.Community, though, is its lifeforce, Kinkade says. “As we make decisions (about the festival), we keep the community in mind. ... As we make decisions, we think about how they impact the community,” she said.As such, local vendors are used as much as possible, and booth space is available for a low enough rate that they can make money doing it, Kinkade says. Volunteers run the weekend’s GABBF events. The festival committee wants to support the other events during the GABBF weekend, and thus, a strolling band will be on hand during Friday night’s scheduled Gallery Hop Stop.“And Friday, we’re not offering food. We prefer that people go downtown to the businesses (and eat),” Kinkade explains, adding the festival is non-profit. “Our whole goal is just to cover our costs and make sure we can do it another year.”Those costs range from $150,000 to about $200,000 each year, she said.“And we need to make money, too,” Kinkade says. “We like the idea of supporting events during the weekend so long as they are not in conflict with the Saturday night entertainment we’ve spent so much money on. ... We want to be involved in other things.”They are part of an initiative to bring arts organizations together, willing to sharing their knowledge of event planning and resources, Kinkade adds.