KU band day fills downtown

Musicians have a field day

Marching bands took over downtown Lawrence on Saturday afternoon, and Andrew and Ingrid Wilson had their own close-up, streetside seats.

The Blue Springs, Mo., couple parked their van along the 700 block of Massachusetts Street, opened up the back end and then sat with their children and watched more than 30 high school marching bands perform during Kansas University’s Band Day Parade. The parade was led by the KU band.

“We come here every year, and it is always good,” said Ingrid Wilson, who grew up in Lawrence.

She and her children – Eli, 2, Olivia, 9 and Olivia’s friend, Nicole Vescovi, 9 – all agreed that the KU and Lawrence High School bands were their favorites. They also liked the dance groups that marched with some of the bands, Andrew Wilson said.

The Wilsons were among hundreds of people who gathered downtown to watch the parade, and they weren’t the only ones enjoying themselves; so were the band members.

In addition to the parade, the bands also performed at halftime during Saturday night’s KU-Appalachian State football game. After the parade, they went straight to Memorial Stadium to practice.

Bands from some of the state’s smaller high schools view band day as a special trip. It was only the second parade of the year for Colony-Crest High School’s 30-member marching band, said band director Kloma Buckle.

“We come so we can see how the big bands do,” Buckle said. “We get to see how the other half works.”

Gordon Lankenau has a few simple reasons for bringing his 16-member, Pleasanton High School band to band day.

“It’s my alma mater,” he said, referring to KU, where he was a band member in the late 1970s. “The kids really have a lot of fun when they come here. They get to see a beautiful campus, and maybe (after graduation) they will decide to come here.”