Seen a band member lately that’s a bit down in the dumps? That may be because of their recent performance and the evening of surprises that came with it. The performance in question was the Oblong Spooktacular Band Competition. Anyone not in band might know it better as the Oblong night parade, which took place on the 30th of October.

Every year the band works really hard in preparation, because this is the only competition the band competes in. Being a combined band, (the junior high and high school play together) they generally compete separately from most bands. It makes sense, because it wouldn’t be fair to judge the band that is mostly inexperienced middle-school students against high school students who have been doing this for at least 4 years. It also wouldn’t be fair to judge our school’s band against the other middle school bands, because the judges tend to focus on the percussion section and the drum major as key factors in judging, and for the Palestine band, those are primarily high school students. This year, as the band waited for the awards ceremony to begin, some realized that there were no awards for the combined class this year. This did not only affect the PJH/HS Marching Band, as there are other bands that march their junior high and high school together. There hasn’t been word yet on how they were judged.

Many people have said that the band’s performance at the Spooktacular was one of their best yet. Marching down the street, comments from both sides were heard by their drum major. People enjoyed the costumes that the band wore. Everyone but the drum major and director wore Storm Trooper outfits, and the drum major wore a Darth Vader costume to lead the band.

The judging wasn’t expected to be a favorite part of the night. It’s a very stressful time for all band members. Usually it is also a time of celebration, as the Palestine Band has placed in the top three every year since at least 2014. Awards are typically given for first, second, and third for four categories in five classes. If you don’t want to do the math, that’s okay, I’ve done it for you. That is 60 awards given to the competing bands.That may sound like a lot, so I’ll break it down.

The classes are the groups that the bands are judged in. The junior high bands are together in one class, The combined bands are in another, and there are three high school classes, 1A, 2A, and 3A. Groups are determined based on numbers, mainly, with the bigger bands in 3A, and the smaller ones in 1A.

The bands are judged for four awards: Auxiliary (color-guard), Percussion, Drum Major, and Overall Performance. There are usually first, second, and third places in each category.

This year, because of the lack of a combined class, there were only four classes. There were the same four categories, but each category only had first place to award. So instead of the usual 60 awards, there were 16. 16 awards which went primarily to the same five or six bands.

The Palestine Marching Band didn’t win any of the awards, but it wasn’t really a surprise. It was a bit disappointing though, and there were a few band members that felt gypped.

It wasn’t all unpleasant though. Any band member at the after party could tell you it was a great time. The marching was good, and hearing crowd comments about how good the band was doing was fulfilling. Most considered it to be a personal best by the band, and many band members felt good about it.

If you saw the performance, let a band member know if you enjoyed it!