BAND UNBANNED
Columbia troupe returns
The beat goes on! Columbia University’s renegade marching band is back in business — just in time for Saturday’s homecoming football game — after it was forbidden from playing at games over an alleged paperwork snafu last month.
The band was silenced by tonedeaf administrators on Sept. 25, but on Friday struck a partnership with Columbia Athletics after drumming up enough support from fans.
“The Columbia University Marching Band has been a university tradition for over 100 years,” President Lee Bollinger said in a statement.
“It is my strong hope that this tradition continues for the next 100 years and beyond,” he added.
The Ivy League institution shut down the infamously cheeky 45person unit last month following what was essentially a paperwork dispute when the musicians applied too late to become a recognized student group.
But skeptical band members said they were drummed out of existence as payback for hitting the wrong notes with those in charge.
Their irreverent antics — including cheering for the opposite team, playing in phallic-shaped marching formations and performing CeeLo Green’s “F--k You” tune outside Trump Tower in 2016 — have long rubbed administrators the wrong way.
Adding insult to injury, the group was replaced by a highschool band from Staten Island at the football season’s first home game on Sept. 28.
A GoFundMe campaign raised $28,000 out of their $25,000 goal and angry alumni beat the drum to get enough cash so the musicians could play on.
Under the new deal, the marching band will no longer need to seek funding.
CUMB will now exist under the umbrella of “spirit groups” such as the cheerleading and dance teams, which are fully funded by the athletics department, student newspaper Columbia Daily Spectator reported.
The band’s manager, Cameron Danesh, said noisy support from the group’s alumni was the key reason the university overturned its decision.
“General Columbia community members really came to the table and said they wanted us to play. They donated to the GoFundMe, they called administration,” Danesh told the Spectator on Friday. “It is only with this support would we be able to play at homecoming tomorrow.”
The band will be back in action at the homecoming game against the University of Pennsylvania at 1:30 p.m on Saturday. They’ve aptly dubbed it “The Home-CUMBing Field Show.”