My high school's marching band went to Bands of America Grand Nationals every year since my freshman year. I wasn't in it freshman year, but sophomore, junior, and senior years I was. Going to Nationals was, I'm not even gonna lie about it, the highlight of my year. (well, maybe not Junior year, we went to Disneyworld junior year, ooh, and senior year we went to Washington DC...) Let me rephrase. The highlight of my year, pre-christmas break. There we go.
So anyways, I absolutely love Nationals. 92 of the best marching bands in the nation go to Indianapolis and perform over the course of two days. The top 33 (I think) bands from those two days perform in semi-finals on Saturday morning and afternoon. Then, the top 12 bands from semi-finals peform Saturday night in Finals. The top band is announced as the "Bands Of America Grand National Champion."
Capital has a reading clinic every fall. And unfortunately it was the same weekend of Nationals. Because of that (and classes) I was unable to attend pre-lims. So I didn't get to see my high school band do better than they ever have before. And, because I'm in Wind Symphony, and had a concert Saturday afternoon, I was unable to attend semi-finals. But as soon as the concert was over saturday afternoon, I got in the car, and it was off to Indy I went.
My friend Charles and I made the long drive over to Indianapolis. It ended up being about three hours, but I think that's just because we stopped. But anyways, we arrived in Indianapolis right as semi-finals was ending. We met up with some people and headed over to the Circle Center Mall and said hi to some of the kids from our high school band. It was fun to see them.
After that we headed back to the RCA Dome (where the Colts play, and Nationals takes place).
Got in our seats and watched finals. It was pretty good. It was weird only seeing finals. I'm so use to being in Indy for three days and watching bands for the majority of that time. But, I'm glad I at least got to see finals.
The shows were all really interesting this year.
I really liked L.D. Bell's. They finished second.
Broken Arrow won. No one expected it, which I think just makes it even more awesome that they won.
After finals we went to Steak and Shake in downtown Indy. Funny how band kids eat at the same places no matter what city they're in.
::sigh::
well I just wanted to write about my sweet mini road trip to Indy.
It was a lot of fun. I just wish I'd been there longer.
Oh well. Maybe next year...