Lancer Joust displays 'musical theater outside' by 19 marching bands
Cue the cadence and strike up the sound, grab a flag and twirl it around - the 39th annual Lake Park Lancer Joust is here, and it signals another season of the dazzling displays of high school marching band.
On the football field Saturday, Sept. 9, at Lake Park High School in Roselle, 19 bands will put their musical memorization in motion to participate in the tournament that marks the beginning of the competitive year.
"Every one is a premiere program - that's what makes it so fun," Lake Park band Director Michael Lehman said about this year's field, which includes 17 bands from Illinois and two from Wisconsin. "We're seeing competitive marching band early in the season, but executed at a high level."
Top-tier marching bands these days use props as well as instruments, flags and batons to make each show a spectacle about more than sound.
Lake Park this year will set up a 60-foot-wide stage each time it performs to highlight soloists performing tunes and visuals, and the band in the past has used props such as a hand-built replica of a coal mining shaft, totem poles, a bridge, an island and a lighted pyramid.
"The competitive marching scene is becoming more akin to musical theater outside," Lehman said. "It's all about conveying the theme or the storyline that your show and music represent."
At the Joust, a panel of music industry professionals judges each group's field show in a preliminary round that begins at 12:15 p.m., focusing on several skills within the broad categories of music and visuals. The 10 bands with the highest scores move on to the final round, which begins at 7:30 p.m.
Lake Park's own Lancer Marching Band will perform its 2017 show, a three-movement piece called "Currents," with songs to portray air, water and electricity, at 5:30 p.m. But as the host, the band will not compete against other participating schools, which include 14 from the suburbs.
That leaves chances for schools including Batavia, Downers Grove South, Elk Grove, Hersey, Huntley, Jacobs, Lakes Community, Lemont, Lockport, Naperville Central, Plainfield North, Prospect, Victor J. Andrew and Wheeling to show off their precision and claim the title of Joust champion.
The bands descend on the Lake Park West Campus parking lot at 500 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. in long parades of yellow school buses, with parents driving vans carting percussion equipment and props.
"We pretty much take over the whole town," Lehman said.
New this year, the event will conclude with an exhibition performance at about 10:30 p.m. by the Illinois State University Big Red Marching Machine, led by drum majors including Ariel Furgat, a 2014 Lake Park grad.
"That group is so impressive just in terms of size and skill level," Lehman said about the 300-member Marching Machine, "that it's going to be an exciting way to cap off the evening."
Furgat's mother, Monica Furgat, is president of the Lake Park Band Auxiliary, a parents group that helps host the Joust as a fundraiser for the Lancer Marching Band and other ensembles within the school's band program. She reached out to the Big Red Marching Machine's directors to schedule the performance to cap off this year's Joust.
Growing up in Chicago, Furgat said she never was exposed to competitive marching band. But all three of her children, including Ariel and her sons Jakob, who marched playing baritone during his Lake Park years, and Tyler, who is a freshman playing percussion in the Lancer band now, have enjoyed the experience.
With so many moving parts - literally - in each band's performance, Furgat said the Joust is a sight to behold. Tickets cost $12 for adults and $8 for students 5 and older, as well as seniors.
"It's just crazy," Furgat said, "how it all comes together in the end."
If you go
What: 39th annual Lake Park Lancer Joust marching band competition
When: 12:15 to 11 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9
Where: Lake Park High School West Campus, 500 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., Roselle
Details: Features 19 high school marching bands from Illinois and Wisconsin and a 10:30 p.m. exhibition performance by the Illinois State University Big Red Marching Machine
Cost: $12 adults, $8 for seniors and students 5 and older
Info: www.lakeparkband.com/marching-band