On April 12th, the Fair Grove High School Band and Choir hosted their 2024-2025 Music Fest. This is an event that allows students from other schools to come and perform in front of a set of judges in hopes of getting feedback to learn and improve their talents for the future.
The Fair Grove Music Fest, run by band teacher sponsor Natalie Palomo and music teacher sponsor Audra Harmon, is a competition based event allowing students to get positive or negative feedback from an outsider’s view in hopes that a student can get more feedback on their overall performance and how to improve their skills for the future.
Palomo explained, “The Music Festival is where schools bring in their soloists, small ensembles, and large ensembles (bands and choirs) to perform for judges. The judges give performers a rating 1-5, with 1 being the best, based on their performance. Any number of entries can receive “1” ratings, so it’s not quite a competition against others, but rather an attempt to do your best and hope that earns you a 1!”
Music Fest is not only a way for students to learn and improve upon their performance but also a way to prepare middle school students for high school band/choir and the challenges that can come along with it. Harmon explained, “I wanted a safe place where students can come and sing/play in front of a judge with as little pressure as possible. When they get to high school the level of competition increases, and that usually makes students not want to participate in those festivals.”
Harmed added, “However, if they have been performing at festivals since they were in middle school the chances of them continuing that in high school is greater, as is their chances of success because they know what to expect from those settings.”
Aydan McClinton (10), a student in the Fair Grove high school band explained why it can be important for high school band/choir students to help out during the event, “It can be really interesting to see all the different bands and choirs from around the area! We know how much a smoothly running, organized, fun event to music kids can mean because it means a lot to us as well.”
Music Fest has been an event where students can learn, improve and get the experience before heading into high school band/choir, but something that can be commonly overlooked is that at its core Music Fest is just an event where students can have fun and do something they love. McClinton stated, “Music festivals can be stressful, but a lot of the time it’s just fun to go around meeting other music students and getting to hear really cool pieces.”
