The Sound and Spirit of Columbus plays before Columbus Northճ game against Bloomington South at Columbus North, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023. Paige Grider for The Republic
The Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp.’s combined high school marching band will be at two competitions in Indianapolis this Saturday.
The Sound and Spirit of Columbus is one of more than 60 bands competing in the Bands of America Indianapolis Super Regional Championship, with their performance in the preliminaries scheduled for 11 a.m. at Lucas Oil Stadium.
The band will then head to the Indiana State School Music Association (ISSMA) Open Class Semi-State Marching Band Festival, with a 3:30 p.m. performance at Ben Davis High School. According to ISSMA, admission is $10 for adults and $7 for students.
The Sound and Spirit qualified for semi-state by being one of the top-scoring bands in its enrollment category at its Open Class Regionals site on Oct. 7. The local band is one of 20 Open A bands competing at semi-state, which will determine the 10 bands that represent the class at Indiana’s 50th State Marching Band Finals on Oct. 28 at Lucas Oil Stadium.
According to the band’s itinerary, the Sound and Spirit’s schedule for Saturday will depend on the results of the Bands of America preliminaries. If the band makes it into the finals for that event, students will head back to Lucas Oil Stadium after their performance at semi-state.
“Super Regional Championships accept 14 bands into Finals,” Bands of America’s event site states. “The 14 bands are chosen according to the following procedure: the five highest scoring bands in each of the two Prelims judging panels, regardless of class, plus the next four highest scoring bands from both of the two Prelims, regardless of class, will advance to Finals. If a Class Champion is not among the highest scoring bands advancing to Finals, they will be invited to perform at Finals in exhibition.”
Gates open at 6 p.m. for the finals. Those wishing to attend both the morning performance and the finals will need two tickets, one for each portion of the competition. These can be purchased at marching.musicforall.org/event/indysuper23/. The ticket booth at the event will be cashless.
