TexasStrangers

Unless there is any real big changes, I don't see a lot of movement compared to last years results. There is just a small handful of schools that for some reason have that magical formula that equal success and it's up to the other schools to try and close the gaps.

Yeah, best thing I did to learn more about a lot of these schools is to go a competition every weekend that I know has several of the big known schools that compete at the State Level every year. I also make it a point to try and go to a couple of Regionals, Areas and I went to the 3A and 4A State Competition last year. I don't know a lot about the 5A's and 6A's I am more of a fan of the smaller schools and I have several friends who all have bands kids at several 3A and 4A schools as well.

North Lamar has a pretty good program and has had several state appearances recently not to mention they finished 10th at State. Farmersville probably had their best year last year and finally made it to state and finished 13th in Prelims 1 spot ahead of Aubrey who finished 14th. 4A Area C is a beast to compete in.

Dang, this festival isn't playing around. Yes, it's not a big band event but several big name 4A's, 3A's and 2A's state finalists mixed in. Good job whoever put this together.

I don't really like to speculate unless I know for sure. I have not heard back from some of my friends. I know sometimes calendars change over the summer and issues happen during the year where schools might drop a contest then add a contest or get added at the last minute.

Yup, there seems to be more and more schools starting to host their own competitions and the some schools just don't have the budget to compete in a lot of contests every year now that state is a yearly thing (smaller schools) and not to mention so many band programs that are up and down year to year. I know there were a couple of competitions last year where lots of schools dropped to go somewhere else that in their eyes was more competitive.

That's because the State Contest flipped this year. This year 2A/4A/6A are the first week and 1A/3A/5A are the 2nd week which could affect several contests like it did last year

A friend of mine said that Mineola has this on their schedule but not sure. I heard there were some others but waiting to hear back. Also, not sure how the contest will be ran. I know one year they did a 2A/3A/4A Finals and then after that late in the night they did a 5A/6A finals. I think last year they just did one because there was a lot less bands due to many of them having Regionals that week.

I think I saw some other bands that had this competition on their calendars. Not sure though.

Yup, most bands especially bands that plan on competing in events usually have their contests selected before summer starts. Yes, sometimes there are issues during the summer and during the school year where bands have to drop scheduled contests and contests go out and try to find bands to fill spots.

Most good programs from what I gather have an idea in Jan/Feb what they want to do just have to do all the other things to start putting it together.

Yeah there are several schools out there that are very competitive and are pretty tight lipped about their shows to the public. I mean it probably makes sense, if you are a good program why do you want your competition to know all summer long what you are doing and who you are using.

I'm sure it will be a full event. I am curious to see how they run it. I know one year they had a Finals for 1A/2A/3A/4A and another Finals for 5A/6A. I think last year they didn't do it like that because not as many bands were there due to other competitions.

Princeton, right off Highway 380. You can't miss it.

Any new update on this?

If you go back to my original post I said "may" never said they will.

When they last redid the classification they also did the Areas. For example, in 2023. Celina, Canton, Farmersville, Van Alstyne, Wills Point, Sunnyvale, Community, Mabank, Caddo Mills and Quinlan Ford were all part of Area B. They are were moved to Area C when UIL redid the classification for this previous 2024-2025 school year. None of those schools moved up or moved down. Hence the reason 4A Area C became like a Super Area with so many great programs and allowed some newer schools in Area B to make it to state. I have a feeling when UIL redoes classifications for the 2026-2027 school year some of those schools will move back to Area B in 4A or they will stay in Area C and join 5A which is not that big. Yes, I have a feeling that some of the Area B's and C's will move up to 5A but I don't think there will be that many because the state is going to raise the cutoffs to try and balance everything out. It's just a question of how much are they going to raise it. Cutoffs in 2022, 1300 students got you in 5A, 2024 it was 1315. 4A is the smallest division in Texas and 5A is the biggest.

This past realignment saw a few schools that were in 3A Area B and 4A Area B move to Area C. They can realign Area every 2 yrs just like they do with sports.

I think so, I think there was 28 bands there at AREA B. I believe the rules states that for under 20 bands at Area then 3 qualify for state and then for every 5 additional bands at AREA then you get an additional band to advance to state. So, 28 bands competing got you 5 bands advancing to state. If there would have been 2 more competing or 2 more military bands that advanced in their competition that would have pushed it to 30 and you would have gotten an additional band to go to state which this year would have been Krum. Area C had only 24 bands competing but advanced 7 to state because Area C is very rich in military bands where as Area B military bands are very scarce or not very competitive.

I think sometimes the problem with moving it is if a school is willing to host it. I know several schools have been asked to host events in the past and passed. There are several places that have nice stadiums but don't have the space outside to accommodate 25 bands or more with numerous trailers and 18 wheelers. If you move it somewhere else it's one of those damned if you do and damned if you did not. No decision is going to be perfect for some schools. I know it sucks for some schools to drive over 3+ hours but I blame that on UIL making the entire Area all the way from the Red River to the Texas Coast. I'm expecting some of those schools near Dallas may go back to Area B after the next realignment comes out for the 2026-2027 school yr.

Oh, I thought they were building a new school last year with all the construction that was going on.

Yup, from what I've seen and heard Mineola has rebranded their contest and Farmersville has committed to it. I know Farmersville typically always goes to the Mineola contests in the past and has had a lot of success not to mention some of their 4A competitors go there as well so it's a good spot to gauge where you stand in the middle of the season. Not to take away from Aubrey, I'm sure there will be some good bands there as well.

The contest last year was a huge event with around 29 bands if I remember. There were 5 2A's, 11 3A's, 5 4A's, 7 5A's and 1 6A School. This is a list of the schools that made it and placed it finals. I could see with the improvements going on in Celina and based on schedule how this could be an event for bigger schools. It's hard to predict who is coming until everyone starts putting out their calendar and sometimes things change at the last minute where schools drop and schools ask if they can join. 12th Place South Garland (5A) 11th Place Queen City (3A) 10th Place Denison (5A) 9th Place Wills Point (4A) 8th Place Howe (3A) 7th Place Community (4A) 6th Place Terrell (5A) 5th Place Van Alstyne (4A) 4th Place North Lamar (4A) 3rd Place Mineola (3A) 2nd Place Farmersville (4A) 1st Place Red Oak (5A)

I don't see how Mt. Pleasant would help most of the schools that are in the Area. It's going to cause a longer drive for most of the schools and the competition that Mount Pleasant hosts is Regionals which bands show up, perform, get scores and leave. They are not there all day long which is what it would be for 20+ 4A Bands.

There are several places in the Area that could host it. The problem is who wants to do it, there are several schools that have nice facilities but don't want to go through the trouble of hosting a huge event. I don't think Gilmer would be an option because it's more deeper east that would cause most schools that were in this Area to drive another hour at least to get there.