Marching bands set to compete at WBHS on Saturday

West Bloomfield High School will host its 26th Annual Laker Invitational marching band competition on the school’s football field on Saturday, Oct. 22, from 2 to 8:30 p.m.

Admission is $6 for adults, and $4 for students and seniors 62-years-old and up. Children 5-years-old and younger are admitted free of charge.

The competition will feature 16 high school bands from across the Lower Peninsula. The bands will be split into four flights, or groups.

Participating local school bands include those from West Bloomfield, Huron Valley Milford and Huron Valley Lakeland high schools.

Other schools participating include Farmington Hills Harrison, Livonia Franklin and South Lyon East.

The West Bloomfield band’s performance will be the final one of the evening, at 7:15 p.m., and it will be an exhibition.

Milford is scheduled to perform at 5:15 p.m., while Lakeland will play at 7 p.m.

The invitational is sponsored by the Band Boosters of West Bloomfield and is a Michigan Competing Band Association (MCBA) sanctioned event that will serve as a lead-up to the 2011 MCBA State Championship on Nov. 5 at Ford Field in Detroit.

West Bloomfield’s band is coming off a 2010 season where it finished fourth in its flight at the state championships, before finishing 30th at the Bands of America Grand National event at Lucas Oil Field in Indianapolis last November.

This year’s Grand Nationals event is scheduled for Nov. 9-12 in Indianapolis.

Milford took 8th place at last year’s state championships in Flight 2.

West Bloomfield’s band directors are Chad Mielens and Jeremy Figlewicz.

Milford’s band director is Paul A. Schreiber and Robert Green is the director of the Lakeland band. o