Band Festival

I had my first real traveling experience with my middle school band. We went to a band festival in a little city close to Chehalis called Adna. There were 14 schools with a total of 425 kids performing. Now this was a mass band festival so there were no adjudicators and each group played one song on their own then there were 4 songs that all 425 of the students played together. It was a very cool experience and what I liked best was my kids were the better behaived kids in the whole group. They also knew their parts a little better than many of the other students.

I had all the fun traveling experience one would want to have and a few experiences that I don't care to ever have again, but know they will happen. I had 3 of the 14 students forget at least one piece of music and one of my drummers didn't load his drum onto the bus. I told all the drums they were responsible for any percussion they play and needed to load it. I knew he hadn't loaded it and just waited for him to ask me what we were going to do. We ended up using a drum from one of the other schools, but I hope he has learned his lesson.

At the end of the concert several parents asked if they could take their kids home with them, everyone of my band kids begged to ride the bus home. That sure made me feel good that they wanted to hang out with the band even when they were given a choice to go straight home.

Well, now we are back to school and they have returned to their normal squirely selves. But what a great experience they have all had.