Staff Photo By Vickey Boyd

Haley Sabados and Taylor Boyd, of the Wando Color Guard, are pictured above practicing for their exhibition performance.

What do you call 20 marching bands; hundreds of young, talented musicians and performing artists; world-class judges; great food; and a day’s musical entertainment  right in your “own backyard?” — The LowCountry Marching Invitational (LCI) of course.

This event is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 3 at the Wando High School Stadium (old campus).

The East Cooper area knows what a fine group of students make up our Wando High School Marching Band, but there are other schools across the region that can put on quite a show, too.

That’s why Wando High School and the Wando High School Band Boosters are presenting the Lowcountry Invitational Marching Band Festival.

The public and school alumni are invited to a invitational competition between high school bands from 1A to 5A status.

The Wando High school Band will complete the afternoon and evening of competition with their long awaited performance.

The 2009 Lowcountry Invitational is exclusively run by the band booster club. The purpose of the LCI is to provide a national-level adjudication opportunity for all the music students who participate.

Judges are solicited from among the finest music and visual educators in the United States. Judges will evaluate

performance in music, marching, and general effect. Additional judges will evaluate the drum major, color guard and drum line captions.

There will be plenty of concessions throughout the day including hamburgers, hotdogs, french fries, BBQ, pizza, ice cream, funnel cakes, candy, cookies, boiled peanuts popcorn, nachos and drinks. The Wando High School Band is directed by Scott Rush, Sean McGrew and Laurie Radecke. Wando is the 5A state Marching Band and Color Guard champions.

Scott Rush is in his 11th year as Wando’s band director. He said the school has hosted the invitational for five years as well as other contests such as USSBA Regionals and Lower State Championships. In all, Wando has hosted competitions for 16 years or more.

“One of the things that makes this contest unique is that we have critique time with the judges after the performance and we bring in some of the finest judges in the country,” Rush said.

He explained that these internationally known judges have judged Drum Core International, Bands of America and more.

At the end of each performance at LCI, the judges will meet with each band director from each school and give feedback, along with making digital recordings of their performance. “It’s one on one critique time with some of finest judges in the country,” Rush said.

“The benefit to Wando for hosting such an event is that the judges do a clinic with our band and they get to see Wando perform twice during the day. They are able to provide valuable feedback to the directors and to the students,” Rush said.

Wando will  perform an exhibition at the end. They will not compete with the other bands. They will be performing their competition show called “Beyond” inspired by the works of Juan Muro.

Band members, all 248 of them, started practicing the third week in July.

The biggest competition Wando will go to is the Bands of America Grand Nationals in Indianapolis, Indiana on Nov. 14. They will also be performing at Atlanta Bands of America Regional Championships Oct. 31.

“We have some of the finest bands in state along with one band from Georgia,” Rush said.  “We would like to see a lot of community support of these young people and promise an entertaining evening to all those who come out.”

Rebecca Imholz 2009 LCI coordinator (with her husband John and president elects for Wando Band Boosters) likens it to watching 18 mini broadway shows.

“We have some of the finest musicians in our part of the country performing. The visual effects, choreography are amazing and we have great concessions and  vendors,” she said.

McDonalds is the corporate sponsor.

There will be music, dancing and visual effects all for a reasonable price. Middle school students who wear their band T-shirts and will eventually attend Wando can get in for free.

Imholz feels the seemingly endless number of hours put into each show will be evident during each performance. “It is an opportunity for our local marching bands to be judged by world renowned judges for a nominal fee rather than paying the expenses of traveling outside of the area, which could cost one band $40,000,” she said. “This is right in our own backyard. We work really hard so that the people that attend are truly our guests for the day and we welcome them.”

Judges

•Wayne Dillon - Hullertowon, Pennsylvania

•Todd Zimbelman - Beaverton, Oregon

•Curtis Costanza - Van Couver, Washington

•Kyle Miller - Los Vegas, Nevada

•Marc Witlock - Lavonia, Michigan

•Michael Gray - Charleston, South Carolina (local artist and visual coordinator for Wando Marching Band. Most well known for judging Drum Core International World Championship. Drum Core Japan and Bands of America Grand National Finals).

•Frank Oddis - Morehead, Kentucky

Schedule of Bands

Class A

•Bamberg-Ehrhardt HS - 3:30 p.m.  

•Chesnee HS - 3:45 p.m.

•Andrew Jackson HS - 4:00 p.m.

Class AA

•Garrett Acad. HS - 4:30 p.m.

•Stall HS - 4:45 p.m.

•Ashley Ridge HS - 5 p.m.

•Hanahan HS - 5:15 p.m.

Class AAA

•Socastee HS - 5:45 p.m.

•St. James HS - 6 p.m.

•Goose Creek HS - 6:15 p.m.

Class AAAA

•Fort Dorchester - 7:15 p.m.

•Effingham Cty. HS - 7:30 p.m.

•James Island HS - 7:45 p.m.

•West Ashley HS - 8 p.m.

Class AAAAA

•Stratford HS - 8:30 p.m.

•Colleton County HS - 8:45 PM

•Summerville HS - 9 p.m.

Exhibition

•Wando - 9:15 p.m.

Gates open at 2 p.m. The Wando stadium is located at 1560 Mathis Ferry Road. Tickets are $8 for adults and includes a program. Students 17 and under get in for $5. Children under 4 are admitted free.

The awards presentation will take place at 9:30 p.m.

There will be parking attendants and golf cart shuttles for those who need transportation to the stadium.

(Sully Witte can be reached at editor@moultrienews.com.)