Midland Valley High School to host band festival Saturday

The Midland Valley High School band will host the annual Mustang Class band festival Saturday, featuring a total of 17 bands.

Other county and area bands participating in the event include Ridge Spring-Monetta, Silver Bluff, North Augusta, Barnwell, Ware Shoals, Blackville-Hilda, Lakeside and Evans.

The Pride of the Valley band has sponsored the festival/competition since 1998, said Director David Hastings, who joined the band program two years later.

In previous years, the Midland Valley band has held the Mustang Classic in late September. However, this year Batesburg-Leesville decided to host a festival last week. With a reshuffling of the State Championship contest sites, Midland Valley will participate in the state finals at Batesburg-Leesville.

"We decided to move our contest back a week," Hastings said. "We wanted to give our kids a chance to march on that field now. It's the first time we competed before having our festival, so we had to make sure we had some things done by Thursday (of last week)."

Aiken High and RS-M also competed at Batesburg-Leesville last Saturday. Silver Bluff and North Augusta participated in the Palmetto Spirit Esprit de Corps Invitational Marching Band Contest at Irmo last weekend.

Tentative starting times at the Mustang Festival Saturday are as follows: RS-M (3:30 p.m.); Silver Bluff (7 p.m.); North Augusta (8:30 p.m.) and Midland Valley (8:45 p.m.). As the host band, Midland Valley will compete for a rating only.

Its show this year is called, "The Emotions of Life," featuring segments related to anger, sadness, love and joy.

The music includes the seventh movement of "Rage," followed by a piece written by Hastings himself. The next segment is the classic Percy Sledge '60s hit, "When a Man Loves a Woman." The show will close with Hastings' arrangement of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy."

Drum major Tyler Shealy, a senior, plays the baritone at football games when the band is in the stands. He switches to trombone during concert season.

"My band experience has been great," Shealy said. "We've got a very good show with great music and marching."

Contact Rob Novit at rnovit@aikenstandard.com.