Leechburg Hosts Marching Band Festival Wednesday

by Jonathan Weaver

Next week, high school football won’t be the only big ticket in Armstrong County.

Before Friday night football games kick off the beginning of October, hundreds of county marching band musicians will fill Leechburg Veterans Memorial Stadium Wednesday evening for the annual Armstrong County Marching Band Festival.

Sponsored by the Armstrong County Band Directors’ Association, the festival – which began in 2001 - will feature high school band performances from Apollo-Ridge, Armstrong, Freeport, Leechburg and West Shamokin.

Armstrong Senior High Band Director Jason Venesky hosted several festivals while he led the Ford City Senior High marching band. He looked forward to September 28’s showcase.

“The five bands get together that evening and we all perform our halftime shows for each other and an audience, and at the end of the show, we all get together and (perform) two mass band numbers,” Venesky said. “For us (at Armstrong High), it’s the highlight of our season because we get to play for a band audience. (Friday night) fans have been very supportive of us, but they’re there for a football game and to be entertained during halftime.

“(Wednesday night), everyone’s here to hear the bands. It’s a really great event. Music’s the ties that bind. We’re not in competition with each other – we’re playing with each other.”

Leechburg Band Director Robert Reams has been coordinating logistics for next week’s 90-minute event. With more than 350 students participating, he expected “quite-a-few” fans in the stands.

“Every year, we go to a different school so it spreads out the work load. You only have to do this every so many years,” Reams said. “Parking’s always an issue at our field specifically, but through the help of the music booster association, they contacted some people that had some parking areas in the vicinity – which was nice.”

But, Reams also wrote two tunes for Leechburg’s halftime science fiction show, “The Drake Equation.”

Based on the equation written by Dr. Frank Drake in 1961 to estimate the possible number of alien civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy, Reams arranged the songs “Contact” (depicted by a flute alien conversing with a saxophone human) and “Abduction” (when said alien captures the human) during the course of the Spring.

“(The songs) were specifically written just for this show and this band,” Reams said. “When I think of a show, I think specifically of the students I’m going to have playing those parts.”

Other than next week, Armstrong – which weekly performs a medley of Queen, “Light `Em Up” by Fall Out Boy and “Monster” by Skillet - will not get to see any of the bands’ halftime shows this Fall since the varsity River Hawks` schedule differs from the other teams. West Shamokin even moved to the Heritage Conference for athletics this school year and competes mainly against Indiana County school districts.

Venesky thought highly of the Marching Blue Devils, since the band not only performs at halftime during football season but also competitively in Class “A” within the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Marching Band Association (PIMBA).

“(Leechburg’s) really driven to compete and make artistry out of their halftime shows – more on artistic merit than we do,” Venesky said. “They do a fabulous job with it. (Reams) is a top-rate music teacher at Leechburg, and they’re lucky to have him there.”

Leechburg’s next competition is October 8 at Deer Lakes High School (in Cheswick, Allegheny County).

Since they host the festival, Leechburg will perform the National Anthem first and then “The Drake Equation” last on Wednesday

At the end of the evening, all musicians will perform “Sweet Caroline” by singer/songwriter Neil Diamond and “The Hand that Feeds” by industrial rockers Nine Inch Nails. Each school band has practiced the songs on their own before Wednesday night.

Leechburg also performed at the 10-school Alle-Kiski Valley Marching Band Festival September 21 at Freeport.

Tickets for Wednesday night are $5 at the gate.

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