Band to compete in festival

By Donnie A. Lucas

The Ragin’ Red Band will compete Saturday, Oct. 7 at the Big Country Marching Festival at Wylie High School in Abilene.

The Albany band will take the field at 11:30 a.m., according to director  Will Vaughan, and the public is invited to attend.

The band will be performing its contest show “Our World,” with music arranged by Luke McMillan and marching drill by Rodney Gurley of Lubbock.

“I think we are better prepared than at this point last year,” band director Will Vaughan said. “We have a bigger group this year, and they are working very hard to perfect the show, so we are hoping for some great comments by the judges to help us compete at the UIL contest.”

The band will march at the UIL Regional Marching Contest on Monday, Oct. 16 at Shotwell Stadium in Abilene. Albany will take the field at 4:30 p.m. The event is open to the public.

The band earned a Division I rating at both the Wylie festival and the UIL marching contest last year. Then the group followed up in the spring with Division I ratings in both concert and sight reading contests to win a second consecutive Sweepstakes Award.

The band has the opportunity to advance to the area marching contest in Amarillo on Oct. 21 and hopefully qualify to move on to the state marching contest. Albany will march near the end of the preliminaries at area, which the director said was “a very good position to be in.”

Bands from all classifications including 1A through 6A now have the opportunity to compete each year at the state UIL Marching Contest. Prior to the pandemic, bands alternated by classification.

Vaughan and his wife, Danna, who serves as an assistant director, are in their fourth year of guiding the band.

Plans are being made for the spring band trip to Branson, Missouri.