Whittier Festival

I am part of the Oak Park High School’s Wind Ensemble. This means, once a year, I go perform with the band at the Whittier High School Festival and recieve a ranking.

Getting there

Our call time was around 7am, and we all took attendance, and loaded onto the buses. My friend and I listened to music on the way there, and made basic conversation. The drive was two hours, the longest ride of any expedition I make for this program each year.

At the School

My friends and I outside the bus upon arrival (around 10).

Upon arrival, we gather in the gym and put away our instruments and things. We then go to the concert hall to watch other groups. This is done to support the other groups and also to do our concert report.

All of the groups did incredibly well, and one of them stood out as a much higher level than the rest. I can’t recall it unfortunately, but to say each group put their all would be putting it lightly.

During lunch, I crouched on the ground on the side and ate my tuna sandwich. The one critic I have to how this goes each year is the lack of lunch area, since each year students are all trying to eat lunch around the same time on the ground. It didn’t help this year that it was raining so many of us broke the rules and ate in the gym foyer (many signs stated no eating in the gym).

The Performance

I’d say it went well, Semper Fidelis went well. Hounds of Spring was okay, but during the last few measures I had a thought. I don’t typically have any thought during performance, but the phrase “This sounds just like a lot of noise” came to my head. Take that as you will.

The sight reading was also alright, the whole day went smooth, and I don’t have too many post comments.

Rest of the Night

We have dinner (a 4 dollar burger; good deal for what is basically comp. food) and get back. I sleep for about half the ride, and my busmate sleeps for the whole thing. It was a long day, but a good one :)

Final Thoughts

I wrote this after forgetting about it two weeks later, which is my mistake! But, thank you for reading anyway :)