Combined Etowah County bands earn honor in Gatlinburg Christmas parade
An enjoyable experience for four Etowah County high school bands got even better after they returned home.
The Gaston, Glencoe, Sardis and West End bands pooled their efforts into the Etowah County Schools All-Star Band and took part in the 48th annual Fantasy of Lights Christmas Parade on Dec. 1 in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The combined bands, 195 members strong, also went to Dollywood the following day.
And on Monday night, West End band director Jonathan Powell got a message from a friend.
“She said WVLT TV (in Knoxville, Tennessee) said y’all won an award for the parade,” Powell recalled. “I said, ‘You’ve got to be freaking kidding me.’ ”
He started checking around, however, and found that the Etowah County group had been named Best Marching Band in the parade.
That’s a significant accomplishment given the stature of the Fantasy of Lights Christmas Parade, which is one of the largest holiday events in the Southeast, drawing as many as 80,000 spectators to the popular tourist spot. And it could set the stage for similar collaborations between county bands in the future.
“The kids did wonderfully well, especially for their first experience in something like that,” said Powell, who worked with Gaston’s Rebekah Hammock, Glencoe’s Michael Peterson and Sardis’ Brandon Pruitt in organizing the bands and hosted their combined practice on Nov. 14. “But winning the thing caught us completely off-guard.”
Powell described the weather as “outstanding” for the parade. “It was about 55 degrees, no wind blowing or anything like that, a perfect night for a parade,” he said.
Conditions weren’t as favorable the next day, but Powell said, “Dollywood even in the rain was great.”
Close to 400 people from Etowah County attended the parade to cheer the band on. “The trip went wonderfully,” Powell said. “We couldn’t have asked for anything better.”
There’s talk of a similar collaboration every two years and possibly bringing the county schools’ other smaller band, Hokes Bluff, into the mix. Powell said it has a new band director who was “just getting his feet wet” this year.
There also are thoughts of “going big” and making trips to even more prominent and high-profile events.
“Now we have something on our résumé,” Powell said. “It worked, and we had a very successful day and night.”
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Etowah County All-Star band chosen tops in Gatlinburg parade
