The Perry High School Marching Band, nicknamed “The Blue Brigade,” has been rehearsing since before the school year even began. Next weekend they will at long last bring their full show in front of an audience.
The public has gotten a taste of the program at an assortment of events, including at halftime of the recent Homecoming football game. High School Band Director Brad Sparks says the show is called “The Forest through the Trees,” and tells the story of how forests are slowly but surely disappearing. Sparks doesn’t want to give away the ending, but says he’s excited to bring the whole performance before an audience on Saturday, September 29th at the Urbandale Marching Band Invitational.
The event will be the first competition of the season for the Blue Brigade, and drum majors Allie Taggart and Adriana Eastman, both seniors, say it’s taken a lot of time and effort to get to this point. Taggart explains, “It’s a lot of hard work! On the surface you see the performances, but you’re working day-in and day-out to perfect your drill, learn the music (and) memorize music, put them together, watch your posture, (and) watch your techniques. And putting it all together, getting it on the field, and getting it ready for performances, it’s hard! But doing it and getting to the performances, it’s the best feeling. I can’t wait for us to have that this year.”
Eastman echoes Taggart, adding that she applauds the progress of the band. “I feel like our band has really worked hard this year. We’ve not had a lot of rehearsals that we’ve gotten nothing done. We’ve been working really hard, pushing forward, (and) everybody’s been really positive and has supported everything that we’ve done so far. And I’m just really proud of the band that we’ve formed this year from last year.”
Perry will play on September 29th at Urbandale High School, taking the field at approximately 6:35 pm. They will be one of 19 bands performing, six of which are in class 3A. The awards presentation will be held at around 10 p.m. The event is open to the public and there is a small fee to attend. To learn more about Perry’s Marching Band, listen to today’s Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program on air and at RaccoonValleyRadio.com.