Fifty-thousand fans, two-thousand musicians, one half-time performance. In a nutshell, that is exactly what Northwestern University Band Day is all about.

On Saturday, September 6, dedicated C-G marching band students arrived at Cary-Grove at 7:30 a.m., prepared for a long day of fun and music. The buses departed at 8:30 a.m. and with uniforms, instruments and tons of bottled water in tow, a fantastic day was about to begin.

Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, holds an annual “Band Day” where area marching bands pack the field from end zone to end zone and thrill the audience. This year 18 area high schools accompanied the Wildcat Marching Band.

The repertoire consisted of Fall Out Boy’s “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light ‘Em Up,)” One Republic’s “Counting Stars,” and “Salute to Freedom,” arranged by Roland Barrett and Alan Keown.

Keeping almost two-thousand musicians in time in a stadium of fifty-thousand is no easy task, but Mr. Daniel Farris, director of athletic bands at Northwestern, had done it many times before.

The two Wildcat drum majors also conducted the group, including the high school drum majors. Maddy Wisniewski, one of C-G’s senior drum majors, has attended Band Day all four years, though never before at Northwestern.

“Seeing the marching band perform the pre-game and halftime shows was fantastic,” Wisniewski said. “Seeing an actual college marching band perform was great.”

Sectional time and rehearsal in the morning gave way to a well-deserved break for lunch and socializing. The game between Northwestern and Northern Illinois University began at 2 p.m., while the half-time show kicked off around 3:30 p.m. The show ended with a resounding “Go Cats!” and yet another successful C-G Band Day came to a close.