Latest news with #marchingbands
Washington Post
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Tell The Post: What's your favorite college football town?
When you attend a college football game, the athletes are just one part of the show. The tailgate parties, marching bands, campus life and regional food and drinks create a festive atmosphere that occupies a special corner of American life, supersizing university towns during the fall. Some are sleepy until Saturday, catering primarily to students and staff. Others are centers of urban life and politics that transform in step with the drum line. Many will brag that their alma mater does it better, but let's face it: Some towns are superior hosts. Do you think your favorite has a claim as the best in the land? Tell us all about it! To submit, please use the form below. We won't publish or share this information without following up with you. Thanks for contributing. By submitting, you agree to our submission and discussion guidelines, including our terms of service and privacy policy.
BBC News
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
The Twelfth: Little drummer boys practice all year for parades
The Twelfth of July is the biggest day of the year for marching bands and their spectators in Northern Saturday, Orange Order parades are taking place to memorialise King William III's victory over King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in July the majority of those taking part in the parades are adults, the future of such events, and the bands' memberships, rely on new, younger, members coming through, like two-year-old Teddy and eight-year-old caught the drumming bug early. "He gets up in the morning and he starts to drum, and he drums all day, and that's just it," Teddy's mum Claire told BBC News toddler from Portadown, County Armagh, got his first drum on his first birthday."He'd be sitting in his high chair with his spoons in his hand and he was always drumming, always banging," Claire credits Teddy's father's family and Rectory Community Action Group for nurturing Teddy's love for drumming through group sessions with local bands."We would attend quite a few band parades throughout the year and it's just something that he really, really loves," she said."He's in awe every time he sees them going past, and he loves the Lambeg drum as well, it's not just the side drum, he's obsessed with drums in general."They hope that one day Teddy will drum for Portadown Defenders Flute Band, which Teddy calls "the red band".After sharing videos of the young drummer on social media, Claire says the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive."They are just completely baffled by how someone so small can play the way he does," she added. Meanwhile Ronnie, joined the Robert Memorial Flute Band in Crawfordsburn, County Down, last year and practises his drumming every two favourite things are building Lego and playing his the help of his mum and dad, he has been sharing his passions on TikTok, amassing more than 300,000 views on clips of him playing the drum and cymbals."What I'm most looking forward to about the Twelfth is parading with my band," he told BBC News NI."It's good to see all different bands all parade together with lots of people and all my family coming to watch."Like many others marching across Northern Ireland, Ronnie will be marching alongside a member of his cousin, Jamie, "is the main drummer" and brings him along to practice and to parades. Band captain Adam Griffith, from Robert Memorial, says "it's a really proud moment when you're walking alongside your children or other family members"."It's tradition for a lot of families and it's brilliant to see the young ones coming through, enjoying themselves. "We have kids with additional needs and learning difficulties who struggle in a lot of other situations and they come to us and go through the ranks and they thrive."It's amazing watching them all develop."
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Local and West Side schools earn awards in Junior Lilac Parade middle school marching band contest
May 11—Almost 1,000 students in over 50 marching bands took to the downtown streets Saturday in the annual Junior Lilac Parade, some of them finishing decorated ahead of the Armed Forces Torchlight Parade the coming weekend. The competition of middle school marching bands kicks off the 87th annual Spokane Lilac Festival, coinciding with the purple blooms that peak this time of year, meant to honor service members and uplift kids in the area. Several judges sprinkled themselves along the parade route to rank the student bands and dance groups in the parade. Students spanning from Spokane to Colbert to Mukilteo, on the West Side, earned awards. The group from Mountainside Middle School, of the Mead School District, got the sweepstakes award, securing them a place to march in the larger parade on Saturday. In the large band category, which counts groups with over 90 musicians, Northwood Middle School, also of Mead, took first place. They were followed by the band from Olympic View Mukilteo School District in second place and a band with students from Cheney and Westwood Middle Schools. The small band category highlights groups of fewer than 90 musicians. Greenacres Middle School of the Central Valley School District took first in the category. Second and third place went to bands from Mead's Highland Middle School and the private Valley Christian School. In awards for dance, Sacajawea Middle School of Spokane Public Schools earned the highest accolades, followed by Olympic View Middle School from Mukilteo. Elena Perry's work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.
