From the Register-Guard

The competitors faced off Saturday at Autzen Stadium, marching across the turf in colorful uniforms as thousands of fans cheered them on.

And not a football in sight.

No, these were high school marching bands, 30 in all from Oregon, Washington and Idaho, competing in the 27th annual Festival of Bands, a fundraising event for the University of Oregon Marching Band. It's one of the largest such contests in the Northwest, a day-long extravaganza of joyful noise and precision drilling.

The event gives bands a chance to strut their stuff under the watchful eyes of eight judges, who score them on how they look and how they sound, both as individuals and as a band, and on what might be called the "wow" factor.

"The bands that win have control over what they're doing and really perform and somehow reach the audience," said Eric Wiltshire, director of the Oregon Marching Band, which organizes the event.

Grants Pass clearly had a lock on wowing the crowd, winning not only the overall title, but nabbing the prize for general effect, music, visual and percussion. Under the title, "The Hollow," group depicted the tale of Washington Irving's "The Headless Horseman," combining appropriately eerie music with visual effects.

West Salem took second, Central Valley (Spokane), third.

To perform in a marching band means not just being able to play an instrument with skill, but to do so while marching in unison, sometimes with a 3-foot plume sticking out of your hat.

It takes "a lot of focus and practice," said Nicole Pritchett, a baritone player from Hockinson High School in Brush Prairie, Wash., as she waited to march. "You just block everything else out and focus on what you're doing."

Playing at Autzen before thousands of fans is "pretty awesome," said Eric Bennett, a senior at Liberty High School in Hillsboro.
"It's a big adrenaline rush," he said. "It's the coolest thing you can do."

"It's kind of overwhelming at first," said Tara Shedeck, a Willamette High School flautist. "You don't know what to think, if you're excited or you're scared. Then, once you do it, you're so excited because you did it right. You're thinking about playing and doing drill instead of all the people watching you."

The event runs from 7:30 a.m. until 10 p.m., with preliminaries in the morning and afternoon, and the final rounds in the evening for the 16 top bands.

For the high school band members, it's clear the event is more that just music and marching. It's a chance to sit in the stands and pelt friends with curly fries, to gawk over an instrument catalog ("A piccolo trumpet? That's tight!"), to be cheered by family and friends.

"You get to hang out with all your friends and it gets you in a good group," said bass drummer Dylan Philichi of Sunset High School in Beaverton.

"And it gives you something to do on Saturdays," percussionist Allison Lucas said.