By Jason Wesseldyk
Sports Editor
A total of 20 bands took part in the 37th Annual Otsego Band Festival at Bulldog Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 24, and Otsego High School band director Mitch Piersma said the event couldn’t have gone any better.
“It went very well,” Piersma said. “There are things we can’t control, like the weather. But we had low-60s temps, cloudy skies and no rain or wind the entire time the show was going on. That is rare and what you might say are perfect conditions for marching bands to perform.
“We also had a solid group of band parents running the event and it went like clockwork. There weren’t many issues, but the ones that happened were solved quickly.”
Piersma also appreciated the fact that this year’s event felt more “normal” following the COVID restrictions that had been in place the past few years.
The festival began at 2 p.m., with bands ranging from AA to D competing in front of a crowd that numbered in the thousands.
As is usual, Piersma received plenty of compliments from other band directors.
“The other directors praised our parents for running a great show,” he said. “The food was fantastic and the directions were clear. One director called our show a well-oiled machine.”
Otsego’s band was the second to last to perform, with the Western Michigan University band closing out event with a crowd-pleasing performance.
Members of the Otsego band and already marched in the Creative Arts Festival parade in downtown Otsego earlier in the afternoon and band members had been busy helping prepare for the festival.
“It’s difficult for our students to perform at the end of a very long day, so our performance had more individual mistakes than normal,” Piersma said. “However, the crowd was large and really got into our show which made them perform better, I think. They had moments of brilliance despite being tired.”
And seeing the WMU band perform helped lift the spirits of the Otsego band members even more.
“WMU was awesome,” Piersma said. “They had played for about a minute when I heard one of my students exclaim, ‘This is so cool.’
“Not only did they sound and look great, but they interacted with the audience and even marched up to the bleachers where our band was seated. They did some cheers they do at their football games, which the kids really got into. I saw looks of amazement and inspiration on our kids’ faces. It was a lot of fun.”
Piersma was quick to thank all the bands that participated in the festival, citing the creativity and variety of musical ideas that were on display.
“The band world truly supports each other, no matter what school you are from,” he said. “Competitions bring out the best, but it is refreshing to hear kids cheer for each other. It was really nice to march past all the visiting bands after we performed and hear all the cheering, clapping and yelling praise to our kids. It was a really fun day.”
