Hoover band tuning up for 2017 marching festival

The Hoover High School Marching Band is holding its 2017 Invitational Marching Festival on Oct. 21 at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.

Organizers are expecting about 15 high school bands to participate, but applications were still being accepted at press time, said Leigh Smith, the band boosters’ first vice president and festival coordinator.

An exact start time will be determined once the band lineup is complete, but the festival should start in the early afternoon and continue into the evening, Smith said. Bands will be divided into groups based on size and awards will be given out to the best bands in each class.

The Hoover High School competition marching band and University of North Alabama Pride of Dixie Band will perform exhibition shows. Admission costs $8, but children ages 5 and younger get in free.

Last year’s festival raised about $20,000 for the Hoover band, and as the size of the band continues to grow, “we need money more and more,” Smith said.

Hoover’s marching band this year has 354 members, including the color guard and Buccanette dance line, Director Ryan Fitchpatrick said.

Money raised from the festival helps the band pay for larger instruments that the school has to purchase, Smith said. For example, the band this year had to buy three more tubas, she said and last year the band bought other large instruments that they are still paying for, she said.

Judges for this year’s festival were still being lined up at Hoover Sun’s press time, but will include Gregory Snyder, a band coach for Metro Nashville Public Schools and adjunct professor for Bowling Green State University. He taught and conducted high school bands for 35 years, including 27 years for Lakota Local Schools in West Chester, Ohio.

Other judges include: Pleasant Grove High School Band Director Chuck Eady; Rob Grice, a composer and retired band director from Dauphin Junior High School in Enterprise; Mike Lynch, a retired band and percussion instructor from Simpson Middle School and Lassiter High School in Marietta, Georgia; and Homewood High School Assistant Band Director Lauren Nowak.

For more information, go to hooverband.com.