BAND FESTIVAL IS JACKSON TRADITION

JACKSON -- They love a parade, those Jackson folks.

Schools, homes and businesses emptied Tuesday afternoon as people hurried to positions on streets near Jackson High School and the Cape Girardeau County Courthouse. Nineteen school bands from around the area were scheduled to make a short trip around downtown for the 51st annual Jackson Band Festival.

At 1:30 p.m., the Jackson Junior High Band started the festivities. Other groups followed, playing everything from traditional marches to Simon and Garfunkel tunes. The Jackson Senior High Band ended the parade, playing its traditional "Everything's Coming Up Roses."

"When you hear that song, you know the Jackson band is coming your way," Nick Leist, Jackson's director, said.

It's Leist who gets the most headaches trying to coordinate the 19-band annual festival. After all the students march, they perform field routines and later join for a mass concert after only one mass practice.

But everyone helps with the festival, even students who aren't in the band. They help musicians from various schools get to the correct practice areas, set up "no parking" signs and direct traffic.

The unity is all part of a strong sense of tradition associated with the Jackson Band Festival. Pat Schwent, another Jackson band director, remembered attending the festival as a Ste. Genevieve seventh-grader. She and fellow musicians boarded a bus early in the morning to participate in the festival -- an all-day event at that time.

"There were trinket stands all over the place," Schwent said. "There was a lot more of a carnival atmosphere."

These days the event is shorter and there aren't any trinket stands, but the musicians' excitement is much the same. Ryan Kimbel, a 12th-grade tuba player, said he enjoys the opportunity to watch other bands in a non-competitive atmosphere. Cape Central's band is "the most awesome," he said.

His friends agreed.

"Everyone should always come to the band festival," Fred Koeller, a sophomore trumpet player, said. "It's a good experience for young children."

Chad Ramsey, a 12th-grade tenor saxophone player, said the festival gives parents the opportunity to interest their children in playing instruments. "If you learn to play an instrument well, it stays with you forever," he said.

The annual festival also gives students from smaller schools a chance to see larger school bands perform. Judy Sharp, band director for Oak Ridge High School, said her students learn something new every year.

This year's festival, dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the United Nations, ended with the "United Nations March" and the "Missouri Waltz."