Wednesday, October 18, 2023–10:09 a.m.
-David Crowder, WRGA News-
We are just a little over a week away from the 50th annual Peach State Marching Festival.
The event is on Saturday, October 28 at Barron Stadium in Rome.
According to Rome High School Band Director Tab Brown, 22 marching bands have signed up to participate.
“They are coming from as far away as Nashville, Tennessee,” he said. “We have one band coming over from Birmingham, Alabama. This year, our exhibition groups are, of course, our very own Rome Middle School Marching Band and our Rome High School Marching Band. Then we have the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, which is going to be coming for the first time to do our exhibition performance at the end of the night. So, we are super excited to have all of that. We’ve got over 2,000 band members that we are going to host and we are going to have about 3,000 spectators walk through the gates.”
Dr. Richard Dixon has been associated with Peach State for 33 of its 50 years. He said a lot has changed during that time, especially when it comes to communications.
“We have gone from walkie-talkies to cell phones,” he said. “Communications are incredibly so much better that we can communicate behind the levee where the bands are preparing to get them onto the field for their performances and then off the field after they perform. Some bands are 150, 175, or more members.”
You can get more information at romebands.net/peach-state
