Greater St. Louis Marching Band Festival
HISTORY
The Greater St. Louis Marching Band Festival was first organized under the sponsorship of the Veiled Prophet Parade a long established community event in St. Louis. The parade had its origin from the krews of New Orleans but the earliest parades, during the late 1800s, were economically inspired to bring farmers to the city after the harvest season in September.
In the fall of 1969, Howard Stamper, President and CEO of Banquet Foods, was chairman of the music committee for the VP Parade. In an effort to improve the quality of bands in the parade, he suggested a field contest for the participating bands to be held after the parade. Before the plan could be implemented, Mr. Stamper passed away.
In his memory, the first contest was held in the fall of 1971 with eight bands at Francis Field on the campus of Washington University. Year two was a complete rainout. The festival continued under the joint sponsorship of the VP Music Committee and the Music Department of the University of Missouri St. Louis. Dr. Warren Bellis, Director of Bands at UMSL, was named Festival Chairman and C. Herbert Duncan; Coordinator of Fine Arts Education for the Normandy School District served as the Festival Coordinator.
As the festival grew, it traveled to Hazelwood Central High School, Normandy High School, Ferguson Middle School and finally the stadium at Lindenwood College. The festival began to expand into a morning session for bands not involved in the VP Parade. This enthusiastic growth reached the point where the Lindenwood stadium was too small. Fortunately, this point coincided with the decision to move the parade from September to July 4th.
In 1984 the Greater St. Louis Marching Band Festival moved to Busch Stadium in downtown St. Louis. 50 bands participated from three states with over 5000 participants. Over 10,000 watched the all day event.
In June of 1994, Dr. Warren Bellis, co-founder of the festival died after serving as Festival Director for 22 years. C. Herbert Duncan became Festival Director one year prior.
The St. Louis Baseball Cardinals announced in 1995 that Busch Stadium would no longer be available for non-baseball events. The stadium was revamped for baseball only. Only a few blocks away, a new indoor facility was being built and in 1996 the Greater St. Louis Marching Band Festival moved to the Trans World Dome. In 2002 the name was changed to the Edward Jones Dome. This excellent facility provides a complete indoor environment for the festival including four large warm-up rooms, a physical warm-up area, exhibits space, staging area and each bands performance is captured on the Jumbotron.
The mission of the Greater St. Louis Marching Band Festival is to provide a professional level showcase for high school marching bands. In addition, the Festival promotes musical arts and education within the community thereby providing opportunities to enrich the quality of life for all.
