Central Attends Bandfest at Tussey Mountain High School

The Central High School Marching Band participated in Bandfest at Tussey Mountain High School on Saturday, September 14 along with several other area school districts.

Band Director Gabrielle Swackhamer said there were 65 students who attended along with Assistant Director Dan Drumm, and Band Front Advisor Erica Coppersmith.

"When we were there, we watched other bands perform their halftime shows, and then performed ours for them," Swackhamer said.

They played their warm-up tune "Ashes" by Celine Dion.

She said they also did other show tunes, including "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel, "Burn" by Ellie Goulding, and "Through the Fire and Flames" by Dragon Force.

Their last song was from Stravinsky's Firebird Suite.

After performing their halftime show, many of the CHS students participated in a drill down competition alongside the other students from participating schools. One CHS student made the top three.

To finish out the evening, all of Central's students joined the other bands and played "Sweet Caroline" together.

"The students had a great time at this event and I received multiple emails from the students expressing how much fun they had and that they love doing this at Tussey," Swackhamer said.

She said her husband is the band director at Tussey and was the organizer of this event.