TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Eighteen northern Michigan high school bands participated in a 4-1/2 hour marching band expo at the football stadium, Thirlby Field, in Traverse City on Monday. It was the annual District II Marching Exhibition hosted by the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association.

The band expo was just that – an exposition. It is a non-competitive event. Chad Mielens, Director of Bands at Traverse City West Senior High School, says it’s “meant to be a supportive one, where schools from across northern Michigan attend to celebrate their fall marching seasons.”

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Taking to the gridiron were marching bands from two hometown Traverse City schools as well as schools including Grayling, Charlevoix, Kalkaska, Petoskey, East Jordan and as far away as Cheboygan.

Held every year on the second Saturday of October, the expo was one of the few things that was able to march on even through the pandemic.

This year, about 800 musicians, as well as their drum majors, Color guards and band directors, put on their separate performances in front of more than an estimated 2,000 fans.

The crowd was full of parents, grandparents, siblings and other family members as well as friends and also band enthusiasts who come every year to watch the show. This year’s expo was sponsored by Interlochen Public Radio and Maxbauer Specialty Meat Markets.

The marching bands each had 15 minutes to play their halftime show that they have been performing for football audiences this fall – only this time, some of them appeared in front of a much bigger crowd.

Jeff Mertz, a past member of the Michigan State University marching band, whose son is in the Traverse City Marching Band wasn’t just there to see his son perform, which was scheduled for 8:45 p.m. He was there when the expo started at 5:00 p.m. to watch all of the bands and called himself a self-described “Band Geek.”

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He talked with Michigan News Source about the opportunity that the expo offers for the smaller schools. He said, “I like that this has such a huge crowd, very supportive of the smaller bands. Some of the small bands don’t get a chance to do things like this. My wife teaches at Benzie and their band gets to perform and they’re smaller and don’t get a chance to showcase their talent.”

The band from Glen Lake Community Schools was one of those smaller bands and they were at the expo for their first time this year. Their performance consisted of 23 musicians, a drum major and four Color guards. Their marching band was just formed in November of 2020. Many of the smaller bands that performed throughout the evening were small but mighty, and some included props and high-energy routines.

Some of the larger bands had an instrumental “pit” with an electric guitar and percussion style instruments as well as props and stage sets. This, according to Mertz, is what is called a corps style marching band which includes the added Color guard, dancing, props and more theatrical elements as opposed to the military style which is more marching forward with straight lines and a band that mostly consists of just brass, woodwinds and percussion.

The performances at the expo included music from Elvis, Lady Gaga, Huey Lewis and the News, 1960’s music, Walt Disney songs, Elton John, Motown music and more. Grayling performed the Halloween favorite, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and we got to hear some early Christmas music from Gaylord with “Sleigh Ride.”

Some of the fan favorites included the music from Star Wars performed by Charlevoix and Aerosmith’s “Dream On” from Traverse City Central which got some of the “older” folks tapping their feet – and young kids as well.

Also a fan favorite, closing out the show, was the marching band from Petoskey which relies heavily on the accompaniment of percussion instruments. Petoskey’s steel drum band is a popular one, performing all over northern Michigan in the summer at car shows, festivals and parades like the Cherry Festival. Their performance at the expo included about 100 musicians and lots of drums and other fun percussion instruments.

Mother, Amy Schantz, who has a daughter who is a senior in the Petoskey marching band, enjoyed the support from the crowd no matter the music style or the size of the marching band. She said, “This expo is great because you can see and hear all of the other teams supporting each other, cheering each other on and being really encouraging. And it’s not a competitive format so they’re really supporting each other and bringing out the best in the program.”