By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

HELENA–Every high school band within the Shelby County School district gathered at Husky Stadium on the campus of Helena High School for the annual Shelby County Showcase of Bands on Tuesday, Sept 15.

For roughly two hours, Husky Stadium was packed with band members, students, parents and administrators to witness all the hard work and practice that each high school band put into performing their on-field performance shows.

Helena band director Jeff Burnside said he was excited to see the showcase come to Helena High School in just the second year of the school’s existence while also giving insight on what the showcase was about.

“We’ve been looking forward to getting a chance to let everybody see the campus and see the facilities and for us getting a chance to host it,” said Burnside. “This is non-competitive and all the bands come out and do what they would typically do for their field shows, which is the same show that most of them would do when they go to contests. Tonight, we have a panel of judicators that make comments but there’s no scores, although we run it like a marching contest so that the kids can get some feedback.”

The eight judges on the panel included local instructors to even college university directors to help give feedback to each schools band.

Burnside also noted that having all of the high school bands within the Shelby County School district in one place is also exciting for the kids because they don’t normally get to see other school’s band performances if the schools don’t meet on the gridiron.

Each high school band had a section in the bleachers where they would sit and watch other bands perform until it was their time to take the field. The school bands performed in order from smallest amount of band members to the largest.

Helena Principal April Brand called it an “honor” for Helena High School to be chosen as the host site for the event.

“It’s an honor to host this event and to see all of the many talents of the students across the district,” said Brand. “We have phenomenal bands and band directors. This is a tremendous undertaking to organize this and our band boosters and our band director Mr. Burnside are tremendous and the planning that goes into this starts months in advance to get this organized.”

The night was capped off by all the bands coming together on the field where a moment of silence took place honoring those who lost their lives in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The bands then collaborated to play “America the Beautiful.”