Marching band’s pre-dawn performance draws complaints

GREENWOOD, Ind. — A central Indiana high school marching band’s 6 a.m. neighborhood performance drew complaints from residents, then angry calls to police from the parents of band members after officers stopped the music.

Neighbors called police over the weekend when the Greenwood High School band started playing from the street in front of the assistant director’s house in its traditional celebration of reaching the state finals.

Deputy police chief Matt Fillenwarth tells the Daily Journal that officers used a loudspeaker to tell the band to stop playing. He says that some parents swore at officers and many later called the Police Department to protest.

Former band director Jon Sutton says the tradition goes back more than 30 years. A problem is that the assistant director had moved to a new neighborhood.