School bands will entertain at Popcorn Concert May 14

By: 
Candice Schimmel

Weiser school bands will be giving their final performance of the school year, the Popcorn Concert, on Tuesday, May 14, at 5 p.m. on the lawn of the middle school.
 Each band will be playing two songs, and will include middle school and high school bands. There will also be some awards given out to high school players. Bring a lawn chair or a blanket and enjoy the show. If there is inclement weather, the concert will move to the high school auditorium.
 Band Director Jake Fortin is pleased with all the bands.
 “They are just the nicest kids. It’s always nice to see the growth of the kids.”
 The high school bands have had a busy year. Marching band began practicing in early August. This year was exciting for them as they received new uniforms. The old ones were 23 years old.
 “The usual life span of a uniform is 7 to 10 years, so we rode those pretty hard,” Fortin said. “It is a lot more modern look.”
 The marching band had a good season and won several competitions, including DIII, which is the big one.
 “The great thing is, the band is mostly freshmen and sophomores, so they are just going to get bigger and better,” Fortin said.
 Every other year, high school band students have the opportunity to go on a trip. This year they went to San Francisco the first week of April.
 Fortin said, “It was a lot of fun for all the kids, and watching the kids is always a lot of fun, getting to see them have a great time.”
 Fortin said whenever they go to California, he makes sure that there is a stop at In-N-Out Burger, which is always a highlight for the kids. The trip was full of fun activities, including seeing and walking on the Golden Gate Bridge, a trip to Alcatraz, and seeing the pier.
 They also ate dinner one night at the Hard Rock Café, and went to California’s Great America for some roller coaster riding. Since it was rainy weather while the band was there, there wasn’t much waiting in lines, which everyone found nice.
 One of the days they performed at an event called Music in the Park. It took place at a local high school, and was similar to festival, except they did compete against other schools. This year, there was more than one school in the same division as Weiser.
 “That was cool, having more than one school in our division, since we went down there and won,” Fortin said. “Especially since it was school sizes of 749 kids and under.”
 “That was fun, especially considering only about three-quarters of the band went, so we were at only about 75 percent strength,” he said. “The kids did a great job there.”
 The competition in San Francisco was well timed, as it provided even more practice and feedback for the bands before they went to festival.
 Festival was held at Vallivue High School on April 17 and included other schools from the area. Festival is separated by the level of music that a band plays.
 “If you are an “A” level school, you are playing the really hard songs, if you are a “D” level it might be because you are a smaller band. Weiser bands are normally in the “B” and “C” levels,” explained Fortin.
 Festival isn’t necessarily a competition against other schools, but with yourself.
 “The goal is to a get a superior rating, which we call a 1,” Fortin said. “We got a 2, which is good. That is the rating that we are okay with, but we do like to push up into that 1 rating.”
 “The kids did really well with it. They played well, and did a lot of great, great things with it.”
 The marching band will begin their season on Aug. 5.  Fortin is looking forward to the new year and what it will entail.
 “You always look forward to the break, but you are also excited about the next year.”
 

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18 E. Idaho St.
Weiser, ID 83672
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