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A couple of weekend ago, I traveled to Louisville to attended the Kentucky State regional marching band competition also known as KMEA . For those not familiar with marching band competition, this is an annual competition for many highly talented and prestigious high school marching bands from all corners of the Bluegrass. The bands that score high enough in the marching season, earn a spot in KMEA's semi finals and have hopes of making it to the finals for a chance to win the Governor's Cup. There are five different classes depending upon the size of a school's student body with the smallest being Class 1A and the largest being Class 5A. Earlier in the day, the bands from each class competed against eachother in semi-finals competition in order to narrow the field to four schools in each class. These schools later in the evening compete against eachother in their respective class in the Finals competition with a first, second, and third place winner being decided for each class.
I lettered in band in high school, so I was quite familiar with the annual KMEA competition and was lucky enough to be in bands that made it to the KMEA finals three years in a row. When I was a sophmore, I was in Nicholas Co. High School's 1A band which placed fourth in the KMEA finals. As a junior and senior, I was in Lafayette High School's 5A band which placed second in the KMEA finals during my junior year, then placed first when I was a senior.
This year was the first time that I had been to a marching band competition where I was a spectator instead of a performer. The weather for early November could not have been more perfect for the outdoors competition which was held at Papa John's Stadium. It was in the low to mid 70s during the day and only got into the 50s late in the evening. The sky was blue and the competition field green. I found the competition to be very enjoyable from a spectator's point of view. It was interesting to actually watch bands perform whom I had previously competed against. Having never really had the opportunity to watch these bands perform, except on video tape, I was really blown away by some of their performances.
This single day of great music and performances made me realize that the most important moment of the season is also the most intense. During my previous trips to KMEA with the Nicholas County and Lafayette Band, I was so focused on and stressed about the quality of my performance and of the overall performance of our band, that I forgot to just simply enjoy the day. As a performer, our day began early in the morning and was filled with practice sessions, preparation for and performance in the semi-finals; then we had to turn around and do it again for finals later that evening. As a performer, every minute of our day was planned for us and I basically just went with the flow. During our performance it was nerve racking to be on the field looking up into the stadium filled with people. The experience was quite different this years as a spectator looking down from the stadium as Lafayette took the field this year. I was filled with a sense of awe and pride. Lafayette was the largest marching band in the competition with 200 members on the field. It was impressive to watch their marching precision and to hear the percussion and drumline. I did find that as a spectator, I was filled with as much anticipation as when I was a performer, in waiting for the judges to announce the winner. I was exciting to hear Lafayette's name announced this year, and to be able to go down onto the field to celebrate and contratulate my former bandmates. It filled me with a sense of nostalia and pride.
I lettered in band in high school, so I was quite familiar with the annual KMEA competition and was lucky enough to be in bands that made it to the KMEA finals three years in a row. When I was a sophmore, I was in Nicholas Co. High School's 1A band which placed fourth in the KMEA finals. As a junior and senior, I was in Lafayette High School's 5A band which placed second in the KMEA finals during my junior year, then placed first when I was a senior.
This year was the first time that I had been to a marching band competition where I was a spectator instead of a performer. The weather for early November could not have been more perfect for the outdoors competition which was held at Papa John's Stadium. It was in the low to mid 70s during the day and only got into the 50s late in the evening. The sky was blue and the competition field green. I found the competition to be very enjoyable from a spectator's point of view. It was interesting to actually watch bands perform whom I had previously competed against. Having never really had the opportunity to watch these bands perform, except on video tape, I was really blown away by some of their performances.
This single day of great music and performances made me realize that the most important moment of the season is also the most intense. During my previous trips to KMEA with the Nicholas County and Lafayette Band, I was so focused on and stressed about the quality of my performance and of the overall performance of our band, that I forgot to just simply enjoy the day. As a performer, our day began early in the morning and was filled with practice sessions, preparation for and performance in the semi-finals; then we had to turn around and do it again for finals later that evening. As a performer, every minute of our day was planned for us and I basically just went with the flow. During our performance it was nerve racking to be on the field looking up into the stadium filled with people. The experience was quite different this years as a spectator looking down from the stadium as Lafayette took the field this year. I was filled with a sense of awe and pride. Lafayette was the largest marching band in the competition with 200 members on the field. It was impressive to watch their marching precision and to hear the percussion and drumline. I did find that as a spectator, I was filled with as much anticipation as when I was a performer, in waiting for the judges to announce the winner. I was exciting to hear Lafayette's name announced this year, and to be able to go down onto the field to celebrate and contratulate my former bandmates. It filled me with a sense of nostalia and pride.
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