Jake here (pictured far left). I’m on the MBI snareline and this is my second year with the corps. Today was definitely a great day for drum corps! Wake up call was promptly at 8 AM and we were on the field by 9. After rehearsing for a few hours, we then broke for lunch. As the corps jumped into our half uniforms and loaded the bus we then waited until our line up for the parade. The Vikingland Band Festival and parade serve as the Minnesota parade band state championships that roughly 20 bands compete at each year (including my alma mater who took home the Grand Champ trophy today for the third consecutive year–sorry for the shameless plug…Go 728 Cadets!).
It was an honor to march in this parade and then perform our show for the hundreds of band students this year. The Minnesota Brass drumline stayed after our field performance to welcome all of the band’s drum majors onto the field for their award ceremony. After dinner and some downtime, we returned to the field for a few more hours of rehearsal. During the first hour or so, we were in percussion ensemble running some segments to solidify our portion of the show. The sun was setting over the bleachers behind the staff as we played through sections of our up-beat and “almost happy” closer. Tonight was the first time I could really get into that part of the show and to feel some strong emotions to push for the end of the show. Even after the sun had gone down; we ran our full production just before 10. I recalled how I felt while playing the closer and watching the sun disappear behind the stadium and ended the day with a fantastic run! I’m excited to get up tomorrow and rehearse for a few more hours before we trek from Alex to Mankato for our first judged show and maybe even see some MBI alum our marching and teaching at Scouts, Colts and Bluecoats!
FAWK
I loved marching right behind you guys on the Alex parade route this year. I love your show and see you guys on the 11th
P.S. say hi Rogelio for me and the rest of the drumline 🙂