Sherburne Pageant of Bands comes in June

SHERBURNE – The 65th Annual Sherburne Pageant of Bands is scheduled for June 5-7 in Sherburne. There will be 31 groups marching in the parade and approximately 20,000 who will come to Sherburne to participate or watch the competitions. While many visitors associate the weekend with the Grand Parade Competition, which is held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 7, there will be various competitions throughout the three days including jazz ensemble, parade, concert, drum line, drum major, small ensemble and color guard.

According a pageant press release, each school is labelled a certain “class” depending on the amount of students in each school district.

“It's the oldest and the largest band pageant in New York State,” said Jeff Manwaring, coordinator of the pageant and high school/middle school band director. He explained that other pageants throughout the state only have up to 15 groups in a parade – parades which sprang from Sherburne's pageant.

All of the competitions are open to the public and charge no admission. Both the jazz ensemble (consisting of eight to 18 people) and the small ensemble (three to eight people) competitions are at 4 p.m. on Thursday and Friday. The jazz ensemble will be held in the S-E Middle/High School auditorium and the small ensemble in the band room.

States the release, “On Saturday, June 7th, a full day of competition begins at 9 a.m. with Concert Band Competitions at various sites in the Sherburne-Earlville High School.”

At 1 p.m. the Grand Parade Competition will feature high school marching bands that will march on Main Street in Sherburne. After this procession, at 1:30 p.m., the drum line competition will begin with the Presentation of Awards scheduled for 4:30 p.m.

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“Again this year, 1st through 5th place trophies will be awarded in all classes for the concert and parade competitions. The drum line competitions and awards presentation will take place at Marauder Stadium,” states the press release.

Manwaring is entering his fourteenth year as coordinator of the pageant, but has attended/participated in the pageant since 1976.

“I just remember as a student performing in the outside concert,” he said. “It was a neat experience to perform in a concert outside. The parade itself was just amazing.”