Preparing for a Festival

Some directors might feel intimidated when it comes to taking part in festivals, feeling that their bands are not ready for this activity. While this is understandable, festival committees do a great job in making the festival experience a positive, non-threatening one, designed to support and inspire. Directors should strongly consider participating. Your whole band program will improve through festival participation.
   
What are the benefits? 

• Expert adjudicators/clinicians provide you with constructive advice on how you can improve your group.
• Expert adjudicators/clinicians re-affirm things you are doing right with your group and support your engagement with your students.
• You will have the opportunity to listen to other groups perform and learn from other directors and ensembles things that work and don't work on-stage.
• Your students will be inspired to learn more about music as they take part in clinics and perform in first-rate facilities.
• The process of travel including a lunch or dinner out and possibly overnight accommodations means that you and your band have the chance to work together, bond, and interact outside the classroom, making your relationships stronger with your students and allowing them to feel more comfortable playing together.  It's supposed to be fun, after all!

How to Prepare
1. Register/Apply 

• Read the guidelines on the Festival website or in the Festival brochure.  Each Festival has different expectations.
• Many festivals fill up quickly and everyone wants a prime time for performance - register early!
• The ABA Provincial Festival of Bands will start taking registrations on November 1 with prime spots gone by early January
• Many festivals have early bird registration fees - save some money!
• When completing your form, read the details:
  • Grade Level (the band level, not the student school grade)
  • Category - Junior/Senior school, community, etc.
  • Check your contact information - is the email address typed correctly?
  • Be clear, but flexible when providing preferred scheduling times.  Making every choice the exact same time on the exact same day won't ensure you get that time and makes it difficult for festival organizers to schedule you.
  • Pay your entry fee and ensure that if a membership is required, your membership is up-to-date.
  • Scheduling is done on a first come, first served basis for many festivals.  Making sure your information is correct, entered, and your registration is paid will ensure you get the spot you hope to get.

2. Book your transportation
Once you have received confirmation of your bands performance time, book your transportation.  Booking transportation is becoming increasingly difficult at festival time.  Don't book your bus until you have a confirmed time, but do it shortly after you receive that information.

• Provide the company with the destination and always add time for things like construction and other delays
• It is important that students and teachers dedicate some time while at the festival to hearing other bands perform. Take observation time into account when booking your transportation and planning your day.

3. Do the paperwork
Schools now require many forms be completed before taking students off campus.  Permission forms, health forms, volunteer forms, police checks, etc. all need to be completed early.  Make a checklist of the required forms for each student and check them off as they come in so you know where you're at in regards to your student participation.

Plan the food
If you are scheduled to perform over a meal time or are travelling during a meal time, consider planning to stop and eat before you play - have a snack on the bus, or plan for a snack following the final activity for the festival.  Don't plan on eating between the performance and clinic session - you likely won't have time.  Following your festival performance and clinic, if you do decide to go to a restaurant, make sure you make a reservation so that the restaurant is ready for a large group of hungry teenagers to descend upon them.

Book accommodations if needed
As soon as you realize you are staying overnight, book your hotel to ensure that there is enough space for you.  Check on the hotel's policy regarding minors in rooms alone.

Choose the repertoire

• Selecting music for a festival performance is a lot like choosing music for any performance. Be careful to select music as stipulated by the festival you are entering.  Read the required repertoire lists and choose from those lists first, then choose a contrasting selection. The program order is usually up to the director and contrast is key.  The Alberta Band Association has all past syllabus lists and marches posted on our website if you're looking for repertoire ideas that have been vetted by a team of music educators. There are also suggested pieces that are appropriate for bands with small numbers.
• Once you decide on your music, order it right away and be sure to order an extra copy of the scores for the adjudicators. The ABA provides copies of the syllabus selections but you will need to provide anything not on the current ABA syllabus list.
• Choose music that fits your band's technical abilities.  Don't pick music so hard that all you can do is learn notes and rhythms and never get to the music making part.  Adjudicators prefer to her a band perform music with confidence and expression.
• Choose music that highlights your band's good qualities. Be sure to keep your instrumentation in mind and avoid selections that feature solos for instruments that are not particularly strong in your band.  Highlight your best assets.
• Keep the festival performance time limit in mind and don't go over time with your program.  Some festivals will penalize you for this.
• Don't play pop selections.  They're good teaching tools and fun for students to play but not appropriate music selections for a festival performance.
• Number every bar of your score.  It will help the adjudicators make their comments more meaningful.

Preparation

• Focus on performing well, hearing great music, and learning how to improve overall musicality.  Push your group to the point where they are playing with great tone, balance and blend.  Don't focus on what mark you will receive or winning the festival.
• Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse........  Remember the basics like ensemble sound, intonation and rhythmic accuracy.  Most adjudicators assume the ability to play correct notes and rhythms is a given.  The overall sound of your band is the most important thing.
• As you learn your festival pieces, focus on beautiful tone - don't overblow and distort the sound and ensure the band members play with enough support to keep the pitches in tune and the sound of the band sparkling.
• Invite an experience director or guest conductor to your school to work with your band and provide feedback.  This will give you an opportunity to critically listen to the ensemble.
• Try rehearsing in a different venue.  Dynamics and articulations that sound fine in the band room may be non-existent or too harsh in a different venue. This will teach your band flexibility.
• Record your rehearsals. You'll be amazed at how often we become satisfied with mediocrity because of the distractions of the band classroom - discipline issues, announcements, etc. all distract us from pushing our ensembles to be the very best they can be.
• Prepare your students for the festival experience. Explain each step of the day and what they can expect. Students need to know to perform at their musical best in all parts of their festival experience from performing on-stage to the clinic to being audience members.
• READ the director's package carefully.  It will tell you what to expect, the format, how long you and your students will be at the festival venue, available photos, etc.  READ the package and the festival website before writing with a question - festivals are generally quite good about providing all the information you need to be successful.
• Send any required paperwork such as performance order sheets, band bios, and seating charts by the festival deadline.  Festivals likely aren't able to accommodate your needs when you arrive but they can if they know by the deadlines they set.
• Develop a festival itinerary and send it to parents, chaperones, students and administration.  
• If a student is scheduled to be a soloist, make sure you have multiple students learn the solo in case your primary instrumentalist becomes ill.

The Big Day

• Arrive early
• Make sure you have percussion accessories/mallets, reeds/mouthpiece puller, instrument repair kit, original scores with numbered bars, copies of your performance order, a brief bio of your group, seating chart, and your baton.
• Check that your students have their instruments, music, mutes/reeds and uniform before you leave the parking lot.
• Do not bring photocopies - some adjudicators are composers and take great offence to photocopied music.
• Tune and warm-up in the warm-up area, not on stage. Perform a short chorale on stage to help settle the performance nerves.
• From the time your band enters on stage, the performance has begun. Adjudicators immediately get an impression that will affect their decisions regarding your ensemble.  Don't tune on stage.  This will draw attention to the weaker players in your ensemble.  Remember that adjudicators are always listening.
• Encourage your students to act professionally while on stage.  That includes posture, stage deportment, and attention to you. You don't need to spend a lot of money on band uniforms but be clear with your students about what is acceptable. An adjudicator can pick out a pair of lime green sneakers very easily in a band of black and white uniforms. The band that looks polished, sounds polished.
• Be careful with what you wear as a conductor. This is a professional performance, not a cocktail party.  Flip flops, bare legs, shorts, strapless tops, slits, and club wear are not acceptable. Also be aware of skirt length - the adjudicators may be below you and a short skirt will seem even shorter from their perspective.  Also be sure to check your rear view before going on stage to ensure that your back looks smooth and polished.
• Be prepared to balance quickly. Depending on the stage/hall/acoustics you may need to adjust your performance. 
• After each selection, step off the podium, acknowledge the applause and wait until the adjudicator gives you an indication to perform the next selection. Sometimes this take a few moments.
• Once your performance is over, look for the people that will escort you to the next part of your festival experience. Don't leave the stage until they tell you how to exit.
• Plan to take some time to listen to the other bands performing. Prepare a worksheet for your students to help guide their listening. Remind your students of concert etiquette - don't climb over seats, don't take food and drink into the concert hall, don't immediately go to the back of the theatre, quiet attentiveness for the groups performing on stage, etc

Despite your best efforts, something may go wrong.  The more you prepare in advance, the better you'll be able to deal with these challenges as they arise. Ask for help when you get on-site if you need it. Have a cell phone with the organizers phone number in case the bus breaks down or you are going to be late. Let the adjudicators know if something happens and you have to replace a soloist, you've forgotten a tuba or other things that might impact your performance.

Band directors are some of the hardest worked educators out there.  Offering a festival experience to your students may not coincide with the 8:30 – 3:30 pm schedule that some other teachers enjoy.  However the payback for you and your students from festival participation is invaluable.  Careful planning, attention to detail, and organization will afford your students an experience they will long remember.