Band festival allows hard-working musicians to shine

Martorelli Stadium in Ross was packed. Cheering fans sat on cushions, blankets and stadium seats, nibbling on concessions and flipping through programs.

It was not high school football, but a showcase for the students who work as hard as the athletes but with little of the glory — the marching band.

The 58th annual North Hills Marching Band Festival on Sept. 15 drew participants from as far away as Erie and as close as next door for more than three hours of music, props and complicated drills.

“The stadium can be ours for the night because there is no football game. All those people are here for us,” said Julia Shimkus, a senior clarinet player.

Len Lavelle, marching band director, said the festival was started in 1960 by then-director Warren Mercer, and the show has gone on each year since.

The event is a fundraiser sponsored by the North Hills Instrumental Parents Association, but Mr. Lavelle said the students don’t think of the festival in those terms.

“One of the neatest things about it — if you ask any of our students or any of the band students in attendance, I don’t think they think about it that way. It is just a great night of making music,” he said.

“It doesn’t feel like a fundraiser when you are there. It is just a night of sharing music together.”

More than 100 members of the Instrumental Parents Association were behind the scenes, selling tickets and programs, food, baked goods, kettle corn, raffle tickets and several ways for parents to honor their musicians, such as candy grams and audio grams that were announced before each band performed.

“It’s a lot of work, but we have an amazing booster group that each year teaches the next year of parents how to host this,” Mr. Lavelle said. “We have numerous alumni band parents that, after their kids graduate, they come back to help give this unique experience to our kids and