Prospect marching band tops at Wheeling festival

Three Northwest Suburban High School District 214 bands took home several awards, including grand champion, at Saturday's Chicagoland Marching Band Festival hosted by Wheeling High School.

Prospect High School's Marching Knights earned first place in the Class AAA competition and was awarded grand champion of the event, a week after winning the same honors at a major competition at Lake Park High School in Roselle.

In the Class AA competition, Elk Grove High School earned first place and Rolling Meadows High School won third place.

In all, 20 high school marching bands from the Chicago area competed in three classes at the festival, now in its 48th year. Band class at this festival is determined by the number of playing members in each band.

The Prospect Marching Knights also took the caption awards for music, percussion, auxiliary and general effect for their 2015 show, "In Shining Armor."

"It (the performance) is representative of who we are and where we are as a band," said Olivia Sykes, a drum major who accepted the evening's awards with her peers.

Elk Grove's Marching Grenadiers took best drum majors, best percussion and best general effect. The Rolling Meadows Marching Mustangs won best color guard and best music, and received the highest music individual and visual ensemble scores of all 12 bands in the A/AA classes for their 2015 show, "Revolution and Triumph."

The Prospect Band Boosters will host the 20th annual marching band festival, "Knight of Champions," at Prospect Saturday, Oct. 3. Twenty-one bands from the area are scheduled to participate. For more information, visit www.prospectband.com.