MINDEN — Several area marching bands will be among the 40 that will take part in the 32nd annual Minden Bandfest on Saturday, Oct. 15.
Sponsored by the Minden Chamber of Commerce, the parade and field competition attract bands from across central Nebraska, with 40 bands planning to make the trip to Minden this year.
The 1 p.m. parade will feature the bands marching along Brown Avenue. The judges are located at Fourth and Brown. The contest uses a three-judge scoring system. They will judge in three areas: marching, music and overall general effect.
Bands from the Dawson County area include:
Class D – Overton, Eustis-Farnam and Sumner-Eddyville- Miller
Class B – Cozad
Eustis-Farnam Public Schools K-12 music teacher Renae Olson said, “We have been attending Minden Bandfest for 12 years now. For the past six years we have received a Superior rating.”
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“This parade is only bands, no floats. I enjoy that aspect of the parade. Since Harvest of Harmony we have been working on a lot of musicality components of our piece,” Olson said, “We have also been working on step style as well as some different technical things with our formation.”
“We march in a wedge formation which only one other school does in the state of Nebraska. With our success at Harvest of Harmony the kids are excited and ready to showcase what we have to offer on Saturday!,” concluded Olson.
Overton Public Schools instrumental music teacher Evan Neben said, “While Harvest of Harmony was quite familiar to me, this will be my first time participating in Minden Bandfest, though the Overton Band itself has been going to the event for some time.”
“The week after going to Grand Island, we took a break from marching and focused on pep band so that I didn't burn out my students. Now, we are taking this week to improve our marching techniques such as horn carriage, proper roll steps and ‘walking the tightrope’ as my former band director called it,” Neben said.
“We are one of 40 bands that will be marching the parade route, and this makes me hope that we can truly compete against the other schools,” Neben noted.
Sumner-Eddyville-Miller Public Schools music instructor Justin Bosak said they have been competing in Minden for over 10 years and always work hard to earn a superior rating.
“The past 6 years we have achieved our goal to the point where the seniors now go around to the underclassmen while we're in formation waiting to march and check their uniforms and make sure they're mentally and physically prepared for the competition. It's been a cool thing to see,” said Bosak.
The S-E-M band has been focusing on the feedback they received from the Harvest of Harmony judges in Grand Island two weeks ago.
“We've been working on getting our sound to blend better the past two weeks so it isn't just trumpets blaring. The students have done a great job of putting in the work to learn to control their air flow and get the sound we're looking for,” Bosak said, “We've also been working on perfecting our roll step style of march, we went back and watched film of us and discussed what we needed to fix.”
“Overall I feel like we're peaking at the right time. We're looking forward to competing this Saturday,” Bosak concluded.
Parade awards will be presented prior to the field competition at 3 p.m. at Kuper Field. There is an admission fee at the field of $4 for adults and $2 for students.
Ten bands will compete at the field, including Cozad, which gives those bands a final tune-up before the state field marching competition the following week.
Field competition gives the bands the opportunity to show their repertoire, coordination of drill to the music, the use of contrasts, special effects and auxiliary units.
