Danville High School will be hosting their 50th Annual Viking Invitational Marching Band Contest; this coming Saturday (Oct 5th) on DHS’s Ned Whitesell Field.
DHS Director of Bands Ryan Krapf says 14 bands from the Central Illinois region are coming in to compete, with gates opening at 2:30 PM and competition beginning at 3:45. Krapf says the community should definitely be proud of an event this large that has a long history.
AUDIO: It’s pretty unprecedented. I mean, 50 years of one contest is quite the accomplishment for our community; and for the school and for the program. We are one of the oldest contests in the State of Illinois.
Krapt says a Chicago organization helps find judges for this event. And performing bands will be scored in categories such as individual music, individual marching, music and visual ensembles, musical and visual general effects; as well as color guard and percussion categories. And once again, one of the judges will be coming home to DHS from Ohio.
AUDIO: It’s Johnny Green. In fact, when I was at Illinois State I got to know Johnny, as he was helping the Normal West Marching Band; because their director at the time was Lisa Preston, who was also a director here with Roger Sampson back in the day. So, when Johnny went to college, Lisa had him working with the Normal Marching Band, then the Normal West Marching Band.
The Danville Band of Vikings will not be competing, but they will be performing an exhibition program at 7:45, prior to the awards at 8 PM. The Band of Vikings are coming off their own successful weekend at Mount Zion; where they took first place in 3A, and were also named Grand Champions of the event.
