24 BANDS COMPETING IN BLINN MARCHING BAND FESTIVAL
Hundreds of high school musicians from 24 bands from across Texas will get a taste of performing at the college level Saturday during the 43rd annual Blinn College Buccaneer Marching Band Festival.
The festival will be in Brenham High School's Cub Stadium, starting 9:15 AM. The Blinn College drum line will perform at 11:00 AM. The Cub Band performs at 6:30 and the festival concludes with the Blinn Buccaneer Band at 6:45 p.m.
Gates will open to the public at 8:30. There is an admission charge of $5 for adults and teens with ages 12 and under free.
The bands will perform before a panel of marching band judges, whose critiques will help the bands prepare for the upcoming University Interscholastic League contests. The Blinn band will host an open rehearsal at 6 p.m.
Sarah Burke, director of Blinn bands, said, "This will give high school students an inside look at a college band rehearsal."
She said, "It is an excellent opportunity for high school students to see what we are about," Burke said. "When they get to hear us, they have a better opportunity to make a decision about playing for us."
Burke said, "The fact that Blinn College has kept this festival going for 43 years shows high school students that Blinn is committed to music and band."
The Blinn Band is trying to raise money to buy new uniforms. The Brenham band directors told the students and parents about the admission fee. I’m sure Blinn informed all of the band directors, so they should have passed that information along to their parents as well.
For the first time in many years there was a surprise admission charge! It took many band parents by an unexpected expense, especially when there were older teen siblings included.
It is very normal for the Location to charge for a Marching Band Competition When you go to the Woodlands marching Competition they charge $15 to get in and $10 for parking And if you do not pay for the all day pass ($25) you have to pay to get in again to watch the finals Katy charges $10 a person I thought the $5 per person was a deal ! If you are a Brenham Band parent the band director sent out MANY emails stating that Blinn was going to charge $5 this year. I have always questioned why Blinn was NOT charging, considering how much the other competitions charge.
I do not have a child in the band right now but would have enjoyed watching the CUB band perform, however when I found out about the fee I decided to save my money. I suspect these types of events will find themselves with a continually declining crowd if this is what they choose to do,