For the first time in the Millard Days Festival’s over 50-year history, the community had the privilege of seeing three high school bands, Millard South, Millard West, and Millard North, perform together at the parade, the culmination of the festival.
The festival is an annual event serving the Millard community, which hosts various activities, including the parade and carnival. This week-long festival held at the end of August ushers in a cheerful spirit as students head back to school.
This year, the Millard Days Festival returned for its 58th year. The fair provided an opportunity for people from all parts of the community to meet, connect, and enjoy entertainment together.
The parade also featured a tribute to veterans, a cheerleading and karate show, luxurious sports cars, and many more interesting festivities. Festival-goers also enjoyed the grand parade performance of the three combined schools.
“John Keith, the director at Millard West, first brought the idea to us. He thought it would be fun to eventually audition for the Rose Bowl Parade, but before that, it made sense to do a trial run together. He suggested we combine for Millard Days to see how it worked as we lined up our music, drum cadences, color guards, and everything else,” Craig Mathis, the head band director at Millard North, said.
This year, the Millard North Band program has 253 students. When the bands from Millard North, Millard South, and Millard West practiced together for the festival, there were approximately 550 students altogether on one field. As a result, preparation for this event presented numerous challenges.
“The biggest issue was sound delay because we were so spread out. To help, percussion played more strongly than usual to give everyone a steady pulse to march to,” Mathis said.
Synchronizing the bands in a way that they could work together proved to be a challenge during practices as well.
“Each band has slightly different marching styles and ways of holding instruments. When we met, we unified those into something close to what all three already did,” Mathis said.
The combined practices allowed the students to get to know each other better before the festival event.
“You just have to be willing to be outgoing and talkative to get to know other people,” senior Linnea Krizmanich said.
At the parade, the band students from the combined schools were all sporting the same maroon-colored uniform.
Instead of competing against each other, the parade unified the students into a project where they came together to celebrate a community to which they all belong.
“If we wore different uniforms, people might compare schools or think one is better than another. Wearing the same thing made us one band instead of three separate ones,” Krizmanich said.
As they paraded down the street, the inspirational tunes of Pink’s “Raise Your Glass” played. The song’s theme of cheering for people of diverse backgrounds served as a message of encouragement.
The audience could feel the energy in the air as the beautiful combined sounds of the Millard North, Millard South, and Millard West bands worked together in sync.
“I really like performances, because I love to see the energy of the students when they get off the field and have that sense of accomplishment. When they walk in with a big smile, and they know they really did something good, and they did it well—that feels great,” Mathis said.
The assembling of the three bands resulted in one of the most unique performances Omaha has ever seen.
“Parades are a great way to bring the band to people who might not usually see us perform. It exposes younger kids to music and shows them how fun a band can be. It also brings joy to people who just enjoy music, even if they don’t play an instrument themselves,” Krizmanich said.