This year marks the hundredth year of marching band at Belleville Township High School. Belleville West and East celebrated with alumni at the Greater St Louis Marching Band Festival, a competition hosted on the West campus, on October 7th.
The Belleville West campus hosted 24 marching bands from the greater St Louis and southern Illinois area, according to Director of Bands Mr. Micheal Pond-Jones.
This is the third year of Belleville East and West hosting this competition jointly, and this year was the largest yet.
“We might see upwards of 5,000 people in a spectator role, not including performers,” Pond-Jones said before the event, “We’re expecting at least 75 buses over the course of the day, and around 75 trailers and support vehicles.”
With this number of people, the directors, musicians and parents of East and West’s band departments put in much work to make this event happen.
“The Belleville West band parent association does a lot of work making sure that concessions run, and that we have parking that is safe and efficient, and that there’s a hospitality room for bus drivers, band directors and staff,” said Pond-Jones, “On the district side, we make sure that there’s an ambulance there, police, port-a-potties, maps, communication and schedules given to band directors.”
All band members participate in running the event, but student leadership has a particular role in making the day happen, according to Junior Drum Major Lillian Averbeck.
“They’re in charge of public roles like band guides,” Said Averbeck, “because those are the people who are meeting the directors, greeting them, and they usually have pretty good social skills.”
The hard work is worth it, however, because it is a significant, and much needed, fundraiser for both band departments.
“It’s our largest fundraiser of the year,” Said Pond-Jones, “…what we do is very expensive. We might spend a couple hundred thousand dollars a year just in procuring instruments and making sure those instruments are in good shape, taking care of uniforms, procuring music, and feeding the band.”
Happening concurrently with this year’s competition was the Centennial celebration event. Alumni were invited to come back and play in celebration of 100 years of marching band, according to Assistant Director of Bands Mr. Scott Wilson.
Among the over 100 alumni are some professional musicians that are products of the Belleville Township High School music departments.
“We have a lot of people who are professional musicians coming back,” Said Wilson, “So it’s just a really great opportunity for us to celebrate together for the first time,”
Some of these alumni include Willie Morris, a member of the class of 2015 who now works in New York, and Carl Hose, a member of the ‘85 class who is a trombonist in Branson, Mo.
Winners of the competition include Centralia (1A), Wentzville (2A), Lafayette (3A) and Edwardsville (4A) with Edwardsville taking the grand champion. The final performance was the centennial celebration with West band members, alumni, and East band members sporting their homecoming attire.
