The Band Championships - When the Adjudicator becomes the Story.

©12 October 2025
http://themediadesk

     Very recently, the Desk attended a performance event with several family members.

     For the paying audience of several thousand supporters and enthusiasts the performances quickly degraded into a running gag that involved one of the paid, professional, highly qualified, and internationally respected, judges.

     The event was the Illinois State High School Marching Band Championships, for bands from all over the state, held at the University in Normal.
     Over forty high school marching bands, from huge schools with several thousand students down to small schools with only a few hundred that attended classes. And so it went with the bands, some filled the field with musicians and dancers, while others had fewer in the band than one big school had in their flag corps.
     But they all showed up at Hancock Stadium to march and play and put on their best show.

     Their friends and family came out too. And paid twenty dollars to get in, after walking a kilometer or more from the 'nearest' parking lot, with their clear bags, and no video equipment, and all that. Then they sat in the bleachers and cheered when their band came on the field.

     They were there to see the bands perform.

     Something else happened.

     The name of the gentleman involved is unknown, which is probably for the best. But he, in the performance of his duty inserted himself not only into the performances, he became the subject of the conversations in the grandstands.

     Officiating is a fine art. To do it fairly and correctly one must observe things that the casual fan may never see. It requires expertise and skilled judgment.
     The man in question, as well as the dozen or so other judges in various categories, have impressive resumes and advanced degrees in the performing arts. They all possess credentials issued by 'band organizations' and 'music foundations' and whatever else from near and far.

     Wonderful.

     Now explain to the Desk, and to the people in the stands, what he was doing, not only on the field, but when he intruded between the musicians and other performers, in their formations, amongst the marchers, and... getting in the way, we will describe one of several such incidents in detail in a moment.
     Was he checking the buttons on the uniforms? Making sure they all matched. Which he couldn't have seen from the sidelines.
     Maybe he was carefully listening to the tones from individual instruments to see if they were all tuned correctly.
     Whatever he was doing, he did it to every band. Walking around the field during THEIR show, talking into his phone. Sometimes having to duck under a trombone slide or scurrying away when a formation of saxophones changed direction suddenly.

     But you have to hand it to the bands. They did their best to work around him. Even when they had to break step and get out of formation to get around him. They did it, and kept playing.
     Mostly.

     One time, he interfered with a flag team when the members rushed to the edge of the field to change flags. He was in the way when at least two of them tried to get to their gear and he was standing there with his phone.
     It broke their rhythm, they were out of position for a moment when they got back to the formation, and it distracted the other performers. That should NEVER have happened. Period.
     Two individuals, that have been to a number of these sorts of judged band events over the years, commented to the Desk that they'd never seen anything like this before.

     The bands were made up of high school students.
     This was to be Their Show. Some of the seniors from the smaller schools may have never been on this field before. This was their moment of glory before they graduate and join the real world.
     They have practiced endless hours, whether playing that trombone that the judge almost took out, or waving the flags that he was blocking.
     With these bands, the professionals.... the director, the choreographer, the music teacher, even the bus driver... the people getting paid to be there, are on the sidelines. The band, everybody on the field, is a student. A teenager.
     And this was supposed to be their biggest day of the year on the grandest stage they may ever see: the State Championship.

     How does that equate to the man you see below inserting himself into their performance, breaking their stride, distracting them, and actually getting in the way to the point where people a row or so back from the Desk were discussing whether or not he'd get tangled up in the rope a group was using to pantomime climbing a mountain?
     Another time he was in between various non-marching instruments and the musicians trying to play their vibraphones and cymbals and such had to work around him.

     There has to be a way, in fact, the Desk KNOWS there are ways to judge a performance WITHOUT being that intrusive. There were several other judges there, working each performance. Only one other of them was on the field, and he stayed well out of the band's way and observed from a distance. Only one was in the middle of the formation, and only one almost got blindsided by a trombone and got tangled up in a flag.

     The fans and supporters came to see the bands perform.....

          ..... not him adjudicate.

     Perhaps the judges didn't read the page of "Spectator Information":
"Spectator Etiquette
All participants should be respectful of all the bands' performances."
    - said document can be found at: https://finearts.illinoisstate.edu/bands/band-day/spectator/

A note to the Committee that organized the show: The photos below were taken by the Desk, and were the best of the lot that came out from where it was in the stands (NOT on the field) for News and Editorial use. You may check the Fair Use Doctrine under that topic at your leisure.

NOTE: The above article is an editorial. The views and conclusions presented are those of The Media Desk, and.... perhaps... a handful of others that were in the grandstands that day. They do not represent Illinois State University, any of the participating bands, or, for that matter, anybody else.
Your patience and indulgence is appreciated- themediadesk.com