North Stafford High School to host band invitational

STAFFORD — Think of it as “Friday Night Lights” turned upside down.

North Stafford High School will host a competitive event this weekend at its football field. But the show will be on Saturday morning, not Friday night, and this time the supporting cast will take over center stage.

The school’s “Big Blue” marching band, along with more than 20 other bands from around Virginia, will perform in the 26th Annual North Stafford Marching Band Invitational.

“We tell people that this is the best halftime show in town,” said Wendy Colby, the event’s coordinator for the North Stafford Band Boosters.

The visiting squad — including Stafford, Brooke Point and Mountain View high schools — will compete against each other, and North Stafford will perform an exhibition, as well. (It wouldn’t be good manners for the host to duke it out with the guests, Colby said.)

The bands scheduled for the event range in size from about 25 members to a Northern Virginia group that boasts almost 200, Colby said. The first band steps off at 9 a.m. in what will be one of several such events around the state this fall.

The idea is for the bands to be critiqued before performing for evaluation in state marching band festivals sponsored by the Virginia Band & Orchestra Directors’ Association. For example, North Stafford has been named a Virginia Honor Band, the highest honor the association bestows on bands, 18 times.

Perhaps because of this shared goal of good marks at state festivals, the bands that compete at events such as tomorrow’s are surprisingly supportive of one another, said Colby, a North Stafford band mother to daughter Rachel, a junior, and son Michael, who graduated in 2005.

“The sportsmanship here is at a very different level,” she said.

Tickets for the event, which raise money for the North Stafford band, are $6 for adults and children at least 6 years old, and $3 for those ages 65 and older. Children 5 years old and younger will be admitted free.

For more information about North Stafford High School’s bands, see nshsmusic.com.

Jonathan Hunley is a contributing writer at the Stafford County Sun. Reach him at info@staffordcountysun.com.