By Jessica Fontenot

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The Trojan Band Fest has taken place annually at MHS for 15 consecutive years, with the competition traditionally being held at the end of the marching band and color guard season. That changed this year, when the MHS festival was joined with the Kamehameha Tournament of Bands, which has been held at Kamehameha Schools’ Kapalama Campus for 35 years. The combining of this event was renamed as the Festival of Bands and was held at MHS on Nov. 5.

“This year is a historic year for the band and our seniors,” said MHS Band Director Derek Ka apana. Besides the joining of the two schools’ festivals, there were other new occurrences as well. “This event was the last home field performance … and the first home performance in the new uniforms,” said Ka apana.

Kamehameha’s festival was joined with MHS’ mainly because of the renovations at their field, and the collaboration attracted attention to MHS. “I think … (it helped that) they got all of their fans and all the bands that usually go to their competition to ours,” said Junior Michael Hartsock, the secretary of the Trojan marching band’s Social Planning and Management (SPAM) organization. Preparations for the competition were being made with SPAM since June, which included Band Camp over fall break. SPAM was also in charge of the props used in the show, such as three different colored walls that had to be unveiled and the corners of each wall being taken off near the end.

Booster organizations and parents from both schools were in charge of the setup of the event and how it would work. Those from Mililani took care of what pertained to MHS and its campus, which included designing the program and meeting with judges, while those from Kamehameha decided the order of each school and their performances in the competition. “The festival ran smoothly thanks to the booster clubs from Mililani and Kamehameha,” said Ka apana, “A lot of time went into preparing for this event and the booster clubs did a wonderful job.”

The theme of MHS’ performance this year was “Revolution” with its three movements, the first being “Remember, Remember,” the second, “A Change is Gonna Come,” and the last, “Imagine.”

Even with the importance of the competition, the absence of Senior Night took away the usual excitement that comes with it. “Band Fest usually signifies the last competition (of the season), a final farewell to the seniors and all our friends in the other bands until … next marching season,” Hartsock explained. However, students still took the time to congratulate each other for all the work they put into their performances.

Despite the relief of the event being over after months of hard work, there are still two competitions left until the season is over. This includes the Rainbow Invitational hosted by the University of Hawaii at Manoa on Nov. 10, and the last being the Kapolei Marching Festival that will take place on Nov. 12.