Members of the Paso Robles High School drumline and marching band recently competed at the Colony Days Parade competition in Atascadero and walked away with some high ranking honors. Above, the band in full swing at the competition. The Templeton High School low brass section performs at a recent competition held in conjucntion with the annual Colony Days celebration. THS was the smallest band to compete with 27 members and won sthe sweepstakes award with an overall score of 161.9. Photos by Aaron Crutchfield.

By all accounts, the first Atascadero Colony Band Festival was a big success.

A large crowd was in attendance at Memorial Stadium on Saturday to watch five bands take the field for the competition, then were wowed by the showmanship of the Inglewood High School band in an exhibition performance.

"It is more [than I'd hoped for]," said Donn Clickard, executive director of the Atascadero Greyhound Athletic Foundation, which put on the festival. "We had a really nice crowd today and things were a little slippery here and there, but things came together."

The judges at the festival were also impressed with how well things went.

"On the competition side, the kids went out and did what they had to do and that was great," said Dave Leon, the visual-effects judge. "On the logistical side, they've been fantastic. The parade went as smoothly as anyone could ask for and the show itself was really smooth. I thought it was great. It was a great experience."

Templeton High School, the smallest band at the festival with 27 members, won the biggest prize, taking home the sweepstakes award with an overall score of 161.9.

"I think dedication and the fact that we're all like a family," said THS drum major Victoria Von Ehrenkrook when asked how the smallest band got the biggest prize. "We're all friends and everything. I think it's more the teamwork that we have."

The event started at around 2:15 p.m. when the Atascadero High School band took the field to entertain the crowd with its "American West" field show. Templeton High School followed with its rendition of "Batboys" before San Luis Obispo High School took the field for its show based on the music of trumpeter Bill Chase. Righetti High School entertained the crowd with a tribute to Michael Jackson and Paso Robles performed its "Gangsta Jazz" show.

Inglewood then took the field to perform in its nationally recognized style while the scores were tallied for the other bands, and performed "Dangerous" and "Right Now" by Akon and "Can You Feel It" by the Jacksons before ending the show with its rendition of "Thriller" by Michael Jackson.

When the scores were tallied, Paso Robles took first place in class A with a score of 77.28, while Atascadero (66.04) took second. In class B, Templeton (77.34) won, with Righetti (68.53) and SLO (63.18) behind.

Paso Robles took the class A field percussion trophy while SLO took class B field percussion honors. For the auxiliary units, Paso Robles won class A and Templeton won class B.

The awards for the parade competition were judged by the Colony Days committee, but also, the field show judges were at the parade and tallied their own scores, with Templeton coming out on top for the sweepstakes award.

As judged by the Colony Days committee, Paso Robles took first place in the parade, with Atascadero second and SLO third. Righetti won the special award and Inglewood won the theme award. The Colony Days Committee award went to Paso Robles and the Atascadero Main Street award went to SLO.

Inglewood took first place in the drumline competition held at the end of the parade along Palma Avenue.

"I was really happy with the bands," Leon said. "For a lot of these groups it was their first show and there were a lot of opening-night jitters. It happens with every band on the planet. I give these guys a lot of credit; they fought through that and I thought all the groups had pretty good performances."

For the complete article see the 10-23-2009 issue.

Click here to purchase an electronic version of the 10-23-2009 paper.