On Saturday, September 27, 2025, the South Brunswick Viking Marching Band (SBVMB) hosted a home show competition at South Brunswick High School. Competitions lasted from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. with awards later distributed. Rather than competing, SBVMB served as a host, which means that they did not get judged, but they did receive credit for hosting and performing.
The members of SBVMB began their rehearsal at ten in the morning. As the audio crew was setting up the speakers and sound system, Ms. Amanda Elkadi, one of the color guard directors, was leading everyone through stretching. Once they got their bodies loose and ran a lap around the track, they were led to basics by their visual director, Mr. Justin Bogen.
Basics is a period where everyone except percussionists and color guard come together to form a block and work on nitpicky visuals such as marching techniques and direction changes. For this period, the SBVMB members focused on marching along with tempo changes. The drum major conducted and changed tempos as they were marching. This is an important skill to master since in part three of their show, there are many tempo changes. Right after basics, members of the band split off into different sections to work on their choreography. Brass went off to their respective directors while the woodwinds went over to Mr. Bogen. Woodwind features spent their time working on two separate parts of their choreography. When the flutes and clarinets hold and play their part of the feature, the saxophones are still marching. Simultaneously, the upper woodwinds, flutes, piccolos, and clarinets, demonstrated the choreography they learned three days ago. Once they finished reviewing, Mr. Bogen gave them new choreography. Instead of marching to their next set while the saxophones were playing their feature, the upper woodwinds began the new choreography. Although it was difficult to rehearse at first, a good amount of runs tightened up the movement making it performance worthy.
Once all the choreography work was over, the entire band came together to clean up their drills. Since Mr. Oldham, the band teacher at SBHS, was focused on accuracy, the band carefully worked on each set to make sure everyone was reaching their spots accurately. Despite the repetitive run thoughts, the SBVMB members pushed through for the sake of the rehearsal to ensure a smooth performance later that day. And right after, they practiced efficiently getting on and off the field.
Once rehearsal finished, the SBVMB members had free time. From 2PM-5PM, they had lunch and were allowed to watch other marching bands perform. Members were quite impressed with the other performances as they were commenting on their choreography and movements.
From 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., dinner was served by parent volunteers and the students began to change into their uniforms. Their uniforms consist of black bibbers topped by a white and green top with hands in the middle. A see-through green cape was draped over the shoulder and they had black dress shoes which they call Drill Masters. Afterward, they made their way to the orchestra room.
As part of their show warm up, they reviewed bits of newly learned choreography and specific parts in their music.
Then, it was time for their show.
The SBVMB members got into lines of four and marched to the field. However, the weather decided not to cooperate. There was slight worry that instruments would malfunction midshow, but concerns were contained as they continued marching.
As the adjudicator announced the school name, members without a job marched into arcs in the middle of the field and played their warmup. Then, they walked to their spots and the show began.
The opener began with a flute solo which later led to dancing of the color guard. Then, it slowly opened to the whole band coming in, showing off their hours of practice. In part two, the tempo slowed down a little bit. A small group of soloists play small parts of a connected melody while the rest of the band marches in the back which later led to the whole band playing. Part three was a ballad. The movements and sounds were more soft and blended, depicting a sense of connection. Then was part four; the closer. This was a faster and more aggressive piece compared to the last two songs. After the release of the last note, the crowd went wild with applause.
The show went extremely successful. Although they did not get a score, they got the recording tapes of the judge’s feedback, giving them something to work off of for their next competition.
