The Most Intriguing Marching Band Competition You Haven't Heard Of
While we at General Effect Media tend to focus most on the Bands of America circuit during the fall marching season, another circuit seems to be gearing up to challenge Music For All’s current dominance in the national high school band competition scene.
If you go to the USBands website and look at their event list for the fall and scroll down to November, you will see two dates for the Southwestern Championships at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX. The listing for Thursday, November 7th, consists of some of the mainstay bands in the USBands circuit in Texas, including William J. Brennan (TX), Richardson (TX), and Parkway (LA). However, if we look at the other date, you’ll see names that may be much more familiar to those who follow BOA. The eight bands currently signed up for the November 6th event include heavy hitters such as:
Coppell (TX)
Duncanville (TX)
Flower Mound (TX)
Hebron (TX)
Keller Central (TX)
L.D. Bell (TX)
Marcus (TX)
Southlake Carroll (TX)
USBands currently dominate the market in certain parts of the country, most notably in the North East and the state of Idaho (which has a blossoming presence in the marching arts community as a whole), but for most of the rest of the country, BOA attracts a majority of the top competition. This is especially true in Texas, with a record 10 BOA competitions (9 Regionals and 1 Super Regional) as evidence of significant demand in the state. Still, USBands has been making inroads over the past few years, going from six shows in 2021 to a whopping 19 scheduled for this year, including multiple early season clinics.
Another massive factor in this equation is the change from every other year State Championships for UIL to every year. For programs not in the Austin, San Antonio, or Houston areas, it greatly impacts their resources, even for schools that are generally well-off. Additionally, in years past, when BOA San Antonio was the Saturday before 6A state, logistics were significantly more straightforward, with only having to plan one trip down. Now, they can only rely on that every other year at best, and it is not surprising to see USBands offering what they are likely hoping can become a significant alternative to traveling down to San Antonio.
USBands’ large-scale expansion from their historical base in the Northeast has primarily coincided with their purchase from Youth Education in the Arts by the Blue Devils’ parent organization, BDPA, which also administrates the Western Band Association, the most prominent of the three marching band circuits currently active in California. USBands’ massive expansion into one of the largest markets for band, the absolute coup that is getting some of the most prominent faces in the DFW area who have been long associated with BOA to come out to one of their shows, and a show that is seemingly tailor-made to pull bands of this caliber on their own are massive, but together, they’re some of the most fascinating developments when it comes to the business side of the band activity that we’ve seen in a very long time.
Aaron Blackley is one of the original contributors for General Effect Media. He has a vast knowledge and passion for the marching arts and has worked alongside the likes of HornRank as a ranker and moderator as well as the TxBands.com liveblog team since summer 2021. Aaron currently works front of house at Interstellar BBQ in North Austin. He can be found on Twitter as @GEMAaronB.
Matthew Carstensen is currently GEM’s Managing Editor. He has been involved in the Pageantry Arts for over a decade, as a performer at the highest level, an instructor, and a fan. You can find him on Twitter at @SatNightLites. He currently lives in Florida with his dog.