On Saturday, band and color guard students will wake up before dawn to meet at the high school at 5:45 in the morning in order to travel to Northwestern college for the annual Northwestern Band Day.

“Mr. Thompson, our band director, went to Northwestern for college and he takes us there every year,” Laura Zborovsky, junior and alto saxophone section leader, said. “Giant groups of bands get invited from all over the area and we come and perform a set of songs during the halftime show of the Northwestern football game. We perform [the songs] with the Northwestern band which is cool. We stay there all day and get access to the game, but we are there to perform at the halftime show.”

While some may think Northwestern Band Day only involves marching band, color guard members also come along for the trip to perform.

“[The Northwestern Band] gives you a couple of songs to learn, or in our case routines, and you get to stay and watch the game,” Danielle Fewkes, senior and color guard member, said. “It’s super fun and it’s kind of one of the highlights of the school year for me.”

Band and color guard members acknowledge Northwestern Band Day as a way to perform and spend time with their friends, but others, like Fewkes, like to take the opportunity to branch out from their school.

“One of my favorite things to do is talk to people from other marching bands because they are usually super nice and they are excited to talk to you and hear about your experiences,” Fewkes said.

Although students have down time to interact with each other, they spend most of the time practicing. Usually, the band has a week to practice their songs and color guard gets a video of the routine a week before as well. Students usually learn most of what they need to know at Northwestern, Megan Lane, junior and color guard member, said.

“All of the bands get the same three songs and we practice them,” Zborovsky said. “We have to get to Northwestern early so we can practice everything with the rest of the schools to practice how the songs sounds and practice how we are going to walk on.”

Most students look forward to watching the game and spending the entire day with their friends, despite that Northwestern Band Day is filled with practicing and performing.