Best Served Chilled, which has a history at Wakatipu High dating back to 2003, played at two primary schools, a tavern, a restaurant and the Blenheim Combined Clubs during the annual festival, on its way to being awarded the gradings for the Big Band and Jazz Combo.
This year, 17 schools were represented by 28 bands comprising pupils between the ages of 13 and 18.
WHS trombonist Luke Petre and Ella Macbeth (tenor saxophone) were the first pupils from the school to be selected for the All Stars Band, made up of the top 16 pupils from all bands in the competition.
Arts head of department Alison Price said their achievement was ``huge''.
``To get into the All Stars Band you actually have to not just be very good at your instrument, but very good at reading [music] because they only get together as a band the afternoon of the concert [and] they have about an hour and a-half to put together three songs.
``You've probably got over 200 students there and [they are] the cream of the crop.''
Along with the gold gradings for the 22-strong Big Band and the eight-piece Jazz Combo - awarded to the ``top of the crop bands with excellence across all levels'' - Bence Csontos (trumpet), Mika Craggs (guitar) and Eliott Allemand (alto saxophone) were placed in the top group of musicians for their respective instruments.
The achievements were testament not only to the hard work of the pupils, who had 10 new band members this year, but also the joint effort of the teaching staff, Mrs Price said.
This year, Luke Belcher, whose background was purely jazz, had helped with the combo, while Alistair Monteath and Vince Leahy had worked with the Big Band and the brass/woodwind pupils.
``It's a real team effort. We're really proud.''
The band's next focus was on a competition in Invercargill in October before it would perform as part of the Queenstown Jazzfest, being held over Labour Weekend.
