Belle-Fair Festival
The Belle-Fair Festival will be held on Monday, November 26 and will be hosted by Signal Hill. I am only permitted to select 7 students (2 of them must be low brass) to represent the Wolf Branch Band. I will select students that display a high level of work ethic and are very serious about their musical endeavors. Students will start rehearsing at 9:00 AM and will finish about 2:00 PM. The students will ride home on their regular school busses. The parents are then expected to bring the students back to the performance site by 6:30 for a 7:00 PM concert. The concert usually lasts 45 minutes and consists of all the schools within the Belle-Fair conference.
The location of the performance depends on the hosting school within the Belle-Fair conference. If the hosting school does not have the facility to accommodate the festival, then the festival will be held at SWIC.
St. Clair County Band Festival
The St. Clair County Band Festival is held at SWIC. This festival is usually held sometime during and includes all of the schools in St. Clair County. I will send in a list of 7th and 8th grade band students and they choose 12% of the band students in our program to participate. The larger the school band program, the more students that can represent that school. Students are selected by past solo contest ratings and IMEA results.
Those students who are selected, will leave school at 11:30 and go to a fast food establishment for lunch. We will then go to SWIC where the students will practice all day. (They will not return to school that day.) A concert will be performed that evening at 7:00 PM. Students will remain at the college until the concert is finished. The concert usually last 1 hour and 15 minutes and includes a 7th grade band, an 8th grade band, and possibly the high school band.
Parents are required to provide transportation home from the concert.
Belleville East 8th Grade Honor Band
On January 7, 2008, Belleville East High School has invited all 8th graders to the high school to participate in the first annual 8th Grade Honor Band. All 8th graders from all feeder schools will meet at East during the day and prepare for a concert that evening at 7:00 PM in the Performance Arts Center at Belleville East. They will share the stage with the Belleville East Wind Ensemble as an open house the band program at East. There is no cost to students for this event.