Remember When....

[Jay B]

How about being on the field for over an hour during the Grand Finale?

The South Milwaukee Festival of Music featured bands and drumcorps in assorted classes, plus it was baton twirling Nationals. The units would play themselves on individually, then the prodigious awards would start. No one walked away empty-handed. There were about a half-dozen categories just for parade floats, and the mosquitos enjoyed a smorgasboard of marchers' blood as the announcer droned on "and now, 17th place, civic and industrial floats..."

Good old Festival of Music. Two days of drum corps heaven. If you weren't in a corps that got to travel east to CYO/World Open/Dream, or if nationals weren't in the midwest, this was the biggest show you ever marched in. I forgot about the bands. The midwest had drum corps style bands in the early 60's. Continental Youth Band (Milwaukee?), Racine Elks Youth Band, and the Lake Band (Kenosha?) are the ones I remember. These bands were well respected in the drum corps community, which wasn't a common feeling about bands in the 60's.

[HornsUp]

The South Milwaukee Festival of Music was not a circuit show sanctioned by the Badgerland or Illinois Associations. Not was it a VFW or Legion affair. It was a totally independent contest, run by a crusty fireman named Frank Caveny.

Frank didn't always get everything right. He often brought in a panel of assorted judges from around the country. One year he brought in SCV founder Gayle Royer, who had been a bugle judge on VFW National panels. But he was assigned to judge drums!

Royer admitted later that he just watched the other drum judge, and ticked some caption when he saw the other guy make a mark.

[MsBusDriver]

The South Milwaukee Festival of Music was not a circuit show sanctioned by the Badgerland or Illinois Associations. Not was it a VFW or Legion affair. It was a totally independent contest, run by a crusty fireman named Frank Caveny.

Frank didn't always get everything right. He often brought in a panel of assorted judges from around the country. One year he brought in SCV founder Gayle Royer, who had been a bugle judge on VFW National panels. But he was assigned to judge drums!

Royer admitted later that he just watched the other drum judge, and ticked some caption when he saw the other guy make a mark.

"Gail". Just so ya know.

[BobB]

Good old Festival of Music. Two days of drum corps heaven. If you weren't in a corps that got to travel east to CYO/World Open/Dream, or if nationals weren't in the midwest, this was the biggest show you ever marched in. I forgot about the bands. The midwest had drum corps style bands in the early 60's. Continental Youth Band (Milwaukee?), Racine Elks Youth Band, and the Lake Band (Kenosha?) are the ones I remember. These bands were well respected in the drum corps community, which wasn't a common feeling about bands in the 60's.

Thanks for the kind words on the bands. I was one of those Racine Elks kids before moving to the Kilties (several of us did that, late 60's-early 70's). (BTW, Conntinental band (2 n's) was from Milwaukee, Lake Band was Milwaukee.) We were quite proud of being one of the few corps style bands, and getting at least some small measure of respect from the corps.

Couple of other vague South Milwaukee memories...wondering if anyone else recalls these or if I'm way off base...

Didn't this show alternate "concert side" during the show, so that alternating corps played to different sides of the field? As I recall, the stands were equally low on either side, and the GE judges were on scaffolding--they would shuttle back and forth, one side to the other, between corps.

Also, I vaguely recall the Kilties repeating portions of their for the judges after grand finale in '68 to protest a penalty. I remember being outside the stadium long after the show ended, and hearing the Kilties out on the field again.

[HornsUp]

South Milwaukee. Out-of-area corps, and twirlers galore, were housed in every available hall, school, and church facility.

Friday night all these units came downtown, barnstorming.

Saturday morning in the stadium, prelims were held for two classes of drumcorps . In nearby Rawson Park, the bands had concert competition.

The mid-day parade traversed half the city. Units that had made the night show were notified as they passed the reviewing stand.

The evening began with a concert by the Chicago Boys Club Band. (Hmmmmmm, most of the players appeared to be octogenarians.)

The first half featured marching band competition, and the #6-4 Class A corps from prelims. It played to the East stands.

Then the Parade of States packed everyone on the field. Kind of a preview of the Grand Finale.

The second half played to the West stands, featuring the #3-1 corps. Drill teams fit somewhere into the total picture.

The Spectacle was revived in the 90s by Frank's son Jimmy Caveny, and survived into this millennium.

The stadium and the adjacent high school have recently been replaced by a soccer complex.