anotherbandmom

I'll be cheering for Argyle! They really won me over this year. I didnt catch Burleson Centennial but those costumes were just wow! Making a mental note to see if I can find a recording.

Well hopefully they are recovered for 2026. The contest feels weird without them.

@utee94 do you or any other CP parents know why Cedar Park stopped coming to this contest? It made sense when they went to GN but they didnt come in 2025 either. Wondering why?

No kidding! I read the line up and immediately wondered if this one is streamed. .... is it? 👀

Wow, thank you for ruining my day. 🥺😭 (jokes) Seriously though they did a great job of conveying this story. The purpose of this show landed as intended on me.

I agree with some of this. My daughter and I had some fun in SA when we were in nearby Converse for the area contest in 2023, but we didnt watch all the bands and had a long break between prelims and finals to mosey around. We rode a train, visited the Alamo and the botanical gardens, and found a good spot for dinner/lunch. We did walk the Riverwalk for funsies and it wasn't bad. Cool shops and live music, and some pretty sweet architecture to check out. I don't remember seeing anyone I felt threatened by and we enjoyed ourselves. But outside of downtown I've never been a fan of SA. I'm not a local though, just someone who lives in near Austin who needed to kill some time.

Having a Grand National rotation wouldn't have to exclude bands who are willing and have the means to make the trip. If a band really wants to compete against specific bands and has the means to make the trip on their GN regional off year, why couldn't they?

Curious how moving up to 6A holds bands to a higher standard. The scoring rubric is the same isnt it? Outside of the fact the competition is tougher, what else changes? Not to say heightened competition isnt enough. My son won't be at Rouse for the move (😭) but I do wonder how they'll fare. Rouse has seen plenty of BOA success against other 6A bands but UIL is different. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see a GN trip from them for quite some time.

Since it's early, I HIGHLY recommend buying the Eagle Experience if you've never done it! I was down in the pit for prelims (a mindblowing experience on its own) but did Eagle for finals and it was amazing not being squished in next to tons of people. I know cheering for the kids is important, but I didn't want to spend my last performances with the screamers and be able to really focus on the show. Plus I WAS one of the screamers at literally every other performance for years. 😂 And the view! Worth every penny.

I can see why things panned out the way they did after some time to read commentary from Hornrankers and having connected dots between things I already knew about BOA and marching in general. It's out of character for me to question judges and participate in unproductive debate and it left me with the ick, even if I did try to be more thoughtful with my commentary. I'd still appreciate a fan favorite award. And thats not a dig at Avon or anyone else. One thing that frustrated me about the mess in this thread was others insinuating that not favoring Avon's show the most was a dig at the kids because it really isn't. That's like telling me I think drama movies don't deserve an audience because I prefer comedies and that's just silly. Anyways what a season. Even after all this I cant wait to do it again. P.s. I changed my username so that it is abundantly clear that my views don't represent my band's. - rousemom52

Why are we bringing drill difficulty and execution into this conversation? FloMo won that last night. A couple of people are talking about conspiracies but that isn't the majority of us. We are confused because general effect literally means how the show made a judge feel, and to a lot of us FloMo's was a better show in that regard. Toxic would be saying something negative about the kids which almost none of us have done. One person described Avon and Carmel's shows harshly and I could argue that has more to do with a limited maturity and nothing to do with the kids themselves. I'm not seeing much toxicity here, just Texas fans reacting in various ways as the individuals they are and most of us are just confused. What's toxic to me is creating an account to argue. Its like if a football team sent their champion to their first away game after an indisputably great season, then someone from the home team walks over to the visitor side to talk crap to their fans for disagreeing with the game's outcome. That's the real weirdo behavior imo. Avon's show was amazing and we are all happy for the kids. Sorry we aren't praising Avon's win in the same breath as the confusion. We feel like FloMo show had more wow moments. Avon's show is top tier, no one is arguing that. FloMo's captioned music and visual, and we feel it should have won GE too.

Just wanted to acknowledge the admins for how well the forums have worked. Used to be it would just time out and I'd just give up and check in the morning. Tonight and last weekend I had zero issues even when traffic was high. Much better than the last couple of years, thanks txbands team. 🥳

Idk guys I was generally more effected by FloMo's show but I'm just the townsfolk. Feels like another one of those "it just comes down to the run" thing. Team Texas showed out big time though and I am proud of us.

I wish they'd do a fan favorite award. Something for us non-musically/marching trained band nerds who just love the shows for the design and feel. Has that ever been a thing? Flomarching sort of does one for TMC. Its just a post on their website but I always vote in it. If that existed here it'd be Flower Mound for me.

The revenue this event generates for the city is going to be substantial. I'm assuming a multi year or long term contract to host in Indy is in place. One can dream though, I'd like that too.