Every year on the last Saturday of October, Pinckneyville hosts a Mardi Gras Parade through its downtown. The Mardi Gras festivities are a longstanding tradition that have been around for 103 years and are very important to the residents of Pinckneyville, as was evident by the large turn-out at the parade.
This event is especially important to Carterville High School’s Pride of the Lions Band. Each year the celebration starts with a competition, and is followed by the parade. At the competition this year, the Band placed third out of the four bands in their division. Overall, there were 16 bands involved, which made this one of the largest competitions of the year. Junior Evan Maranti said, “Although our placement at this competition may have been disappointing to some people, the band’s growth and attitude during this season is unmatched to any other.”
After awards for the competition, the band headed to a park near the parade lineup spot. Here, the band boosters provided pizza, soda, and snacks to treat the band for their hard work. During this time, band members also had to get in their costumes for the parade. Oftentimes, the sections of instruments will have a group costume. The saxophones dressed up as Disney princesses this year, including the boys. Sophomore Noah Wright said, “My favorite part was acceptance from the crowd no matter what we were wearing. My costume was Belle from Beauty and the Beast.”
When everyone was in their respective costumes, the band made their way to the parade line up. All of the participating bands waited for their turn to enter the parade, which can take up to two hours. This year, the Pride of the Lions waited about an hour to enter the parade, which was not as bad as previous years. Once the marching began, it took around 30 minutes to walk the parade route, with the judges for the parade being near the end. The parade is not competitive for the Pride of the Lions, but rather, they focus on having a fun time. The band teacher Mrs. Braddock said, “I felt like the performance of the song was great, given that it was new and they learned it in just a few weeks. They also marched well and performed like they were having fun.”
As the night came to a close, they all piled into the bus to head back home. The bus ride back was calm and chilly with some people being more entertaining than others. This was a great way for the marching band to end their successful season.
