High school students from four states will invade Marshall University’s campus Saturday for the largest marching band festival in the area.
The Tri-State Marching Festival is a one-day event that will feature 38 high school bands. The bands are divided into four classifications determined by size. The groups range from A1, A2, AA and AAA.
The schools come from four different states: Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky. For most of the bands participating, this festival is considered the finale of the season.
“I don’t know of a larger festival in the northeastern United States,” said Steve Barnett, director of bands at Marshall. “Definitely the biggest of anywhere around here.”
Greg Richmond, Marshall graduate student, works with Barnett and others to set up the festival. He first attended the festival while he was the band director of Pocahontas County High School.
“It was a really great opportunity for my students,” Richmond said. “It was the largest crowd they ever played in front of.”
The festival is a great recruiting opportunity for Marshall. The attendance for previous festivals has ranged between 10,000 and 12,000 people. Recruiting booths are set up for the event. The Marshall University Marching Thunder also does special performances.
“We perform last because everyone has to stay to listen, because the awards are after us and we do an extended exhibition,” Barnett said.
Ninety-eight percent of the Marching Thunder has previously participated in the Tri-State Marching Festival. The high school bands will warm up on the new AstroTurf practice field for the Marching Thunder.
“They’ll see that and they’ll say ‘that’s really nice,’” Barnett said. “We try to use that as a good recruiting tool.”
If students participate in high school band, then they are good candidates for going to college, Barnett said. Marching Thunder does a commercial in the middle of the show that informs high school students about enrolling at Marshall and that the Marching Thunder is open to anyone.
One of the largest benefits to the bands is the judges’ scores and comments.
“There are a mix of judges from instate and out of state,” Barnett said. “They judge bands on general effect, marching performance, music performance, drumming, color guard, dancers and twirlers.”
Each judge covers a specific aspect of the competition, so they can give the schools the best critique and score possible. They make a critique tape during the performance for each school that discusses why the band received its score.
“On Mondays, we would watch the video and listen to the tape and make a list of what we needed to make better,” Richmond said.
The Tri-State Marching Festival will start 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Joan C. Edwards Stadium. It is free to everyone and will be an all day event.
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