Press Release:

It was a packed house at Pendleton Field Saturday as 19 bands from three states converged to strut their collective stuffs at the 27th Annual George Wythe Band Festival. The collective units included over 1,100 participants, 57 buses, and 25 support vehicles (talk about a traffic jam). Add in each band’s supporters and the crowd exceeded 4,000 all crammed in and jamming to the beat of each competing band. No surprise this event is the largest high school competition in the county each year.

The rainy weather that disrupted the football schedule for the weekend kept one of the scheduled 20 bands from attending due to lack of practice time, but it didn’t dampen the excitement for the rest of the crowd. After a slight drizzle before noon the rains held off for the rest of the day. Even with all of the band traffic, parking for two more buses was reserved next to the field for the George Wythe Football team who left for their rescheduled game with Holston about an hour into the event. Several team members took time to check out the bands playing on their home turf.

The bands competed in four classes based on the size. Each performance was judged by a panel of experienced clinicians in the categories of Drum Major, Auxiliaries, Soloist, Percussion, Music, Marching, and General Effect (GE). The band score is given a rating and is the basis for determining placement in class. The spectators determined the Audience Choice Award by voting for their favorite band. Overall Band of the Day awards were given to the best band in Class A & AA and Class AAA & AAAA. The host George Wythe Mighty Maroon Marching Band closed out the day’s performances presenting their competition show in exhibition.

The award for the best band in Class A went to a local favorite. The Fort Chiswell Pioneer Band has been on a roll in recent years under the guidance of their director, Mr. Frank Pugh. Thus far this season the Pioneers have strung together a record setting season and added to that record Saturday nearly carrying off the entire class. The Pioneer Band placed second in Drum Major, Auxiliaries, and Music and first in Marching, GE, and Percussion. Their Superior rated performance proved to be the Best in Class A. They were followed by Liberty High School of Bedford in second place and Alleghany High School of Sparta, NC in third.

The Class AA finishers included three Superior rated performances. The Patrick Henry Rebel Regiment took the class followed by John Battle High School in second and Volunteer High School of Blountville, TN in third.

The Richlands High School Blue Tornado Band won a close contest in Class AAA. Blacksburg finished a close second with Albemarle High School of Charlottesville rounding out the class. The biggest bands in Class AAAA duked it out and the end of the day. Last year’s champ, the Sullivan Central Marching Cougars of Kingsport, TN, once again received top honors. The Betsy Band of Elizabethton High school finished a close second followed by Graham High School in third.

Sullivan Central was the crowd’s pick for Audience Choice. Patrick Henry and Richlands carried off the big Band of the Day trophies for their performances. The next meeting of the George Wythe Band Boosters will be a debriefing of the day’s events. That will be the beginning of planning for the 28th Annual George Wythe Band Festival to be held next year on October 14, 2006.

What a great field of competitors! Twenty bands spread evenly across the four classes kept everyone well entertained all evening long. When registration closed we found we had 5 Class A bands, 5 Class AAA bands and 10 Class AA bands. To balance the show and provide for a better competition, we lined the up AA bands according to size and split the class. The bigger AA bands became Class AAA and the AAA bands moved up to Class AAAA. (They received an extra "A" for effort just for showing up!).

Many of the bands had to wait to recover SAT participants before they could head out for the Festival. Thanks to all of the bands for putting forth that extra effort and for choosing our Festival to share the fruits of your hard work.

Thanks also to the George Wythe After Prom, Girls Basketball team, Cheerleaders, and to Lippo's Music Mart for stopping by and adding to the Festival atmosphere. [and a special PTTTHHTTTTT!!!! for Mills Studio Productions of Richmond, VA [a.k.a. realMUSIC Productions] for leaving us high and dry at the last minute on our DVD setup!!! (Next year, don't call us. We'll call you.)]

Click on the links to your left to visit a photo page for each band. Each page includes photos from the press box and a link to Counts Photography where you will be able to order prints of action shots taken from the sidelines (Dennis isn't quite ready yet, but he'll come around).

Did we do something you liked? Did we do something ... else? Please send your comments (good or bad, we can take it) to . We'll use your feedback to make our Festival even better next year.

Once again, thanks for all of your hard work, practicing, missed summer vacations, etc. and Thanks for sharing it all with us today at the