Band Jamboree

We sat in the fading drizzle on the western side of the stadium as 11 Austin high school marching bands sat in the stands on the east. The wind blew the rain away, and the setting sun burst thru the clouds. A rainbow lit up the eastern sky, encircling the bands in a brilliant double arc that reached from horizon to horizon. Then the show started.

Imagine 11 bands together playing the Star Spangled Banner to their parents and friends in the stands on the other side of the field.

Imagine it being (to the day) the school district's 125th birthday and the crowd singing the Happy Birthday Song.

Imagine 11 high school marching bands, some small, some large: Reagan, Lanier, Travis, Crockett, McCallum, LBJ, Anderson, Austin, Akins and Bowie.

Imagine batons twirling, flags flying, dancers dancing, and each band playing and marching their hearts out.

Imagine the entire Akins band shouting chants of encouragement to every band as they marched onto and off of the field.

And imagine then, the University of Texas Longhorn Band marching into the stadium from outside, great orange banners streaming in the breeze, hundreds upon hundreds of marching legs moving exactly in unison to the cadence of drums. Imagine them standing on sidelines stretching almost from end zone to end zone. Imagine them playing Kansas and Chicago and Journey! Imagine the drum major in his white suit and cowboy hat fetching the band single file from their phalanxes and spelling out "Texas" in cursive characters. Imagine The Wabash Cannonball and March Grandioso and The Eyes of Texas. Imagine the high school kids standing and screaming and clapping and cheering. And the parents, imagine the parents across the field from the kids watching all of this, standing and crying and singing and smiling from ear to ear.

---
34th Annual Marching Band Jamboree
Austin Independent School District
Austin, Texas USA

2:10:25 AM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []