Thursday, October 24, 2024–10:45 a.m.
-David Crowder, WRGA News-
27 bands from as far north as Nashville, Tennessee to as far south as Auburn, Alabama will be in Rome Saturday for the annual Peach State Marching Festival Saturday at Barron Stadium.
The opening ceremony is at 9:30 in the morning and the performances will take place all day long.
According to Rome High School Band Director Tab Brown, the 51st annual event will feature the largest number of bands in at least a decade.
Of course, in addition to being a festival, it’s also a competition.
“We have what’s called an Olympic-style judge and panel,” Brown said. “We have five band judges that evaluate the overall band performance and at the end of the night the highest score and the lowest score are thrown out and the middle three are averaged to get the overall band score. We also have a separate judge for drum majors. We have a separate judge for dance line majorettes and color guard. We have a separate judge for percussion.”
Rome band parents and members of the community work pretty much all year long to prepare for the festival. Dr. Richard Dixon, who has been associated with the event for a number of years said all of the hard work is worth it.
“It is incredible to see these youngsters perform on the field, and then at the end of the day when we do the award presentations, it is unbridled excitement on that field,” he said. “Watching those youngsters makes it all worthwhile.”
The Rome Middle School Band and the Rome High School bands will be performing in exhibitions but do not compete.
The festival will close with a performance by the Jacksonville State University Marching Southerners.
Admission is $10 with children 5 and under admitted for free.
Parking is available at the Third Avenue Parking Deck.
