On Thursday, September 19, WTHS Bands hosted their annual Festival of Marching Bands, otherwise known as Fill the Drum. This year, Warren Bands donated to the Warren Township Food Pantry, raising over $3,000 for the organization. Fill the Drum featured four bands this year, including the Viking Middle School Marching Band, Woodland Middle School Marching Band, the new WTHS Blue and Gold Band, and the WTHS Competition Marching Band.

This year, the Warren band program has introduced a brand new program called the Blue and Gold band, which replaced the Non-Competition band. Blue and Gold band is designed to perform fun, crowd-pleasing songs during football games along with the cheerleaders. The group played My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light it Up) by Fall Out Boy, All of the Lights by Kanye West, and the WTHS Fight Song. Many students participated in the band alongside the Competition Marching Band.

Fill the Drum also serves as the marching band’s senior night. The class of 2025 seniors were recognized by director Kurt Gros. This year’s seniors received a gift bag from the program and were able to show off several different salutes to the audience, with some notable ones being from drum major Mia Ramirez, trombone Gevan Gonio, saxophone Mei Hanaski, tuba Johnathan Laird, and color guard captain Ryanna Gonzales.

To end the night, the Competition Marching Band performed their show Which Witch is Which? under the direction of drum majors Mia Ramirez, Kelsi Mulley, and Sema Asmar, coordinated by directors Lawrance Rogers and Dave Tribley. The show includes music from Dies Irae, Sleeping Beauty by Tchaikovsky, Defying Gravity from the Broadway musical Wicked, I Put A Spell on You, and Poor Unfortunate Souls from “Little Mermaid.” Between haunting props, enchanting uniforms, and spell casting soloists like Gavin Kingery and Ava Mennecke,  this year’s show is not one you want to miss. Both directors Rogers and Tribley are looking forward to the rest of the season. “The Competition Band’s performance at Fill the Drum was nothing short of astounding for the month of September,” said Mr. Rogers. “And it was the first performance of all four movements with the new sound system,” added Mr. Tribley. The band looks forward to the rest of the season, which includes 5 competitions and the state marching competition held at Illinois State University.