Photo By Darby Hinkley Alpena High School Symphony Band students perform at a band festival in Lincoln on Tuesday.

ALPENA — Alpena Public Schools band classes traveled to Alcona High School for a Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association festival on Tuesday. Students and parent volunteers successfully made three separate trips on charter buses for the different class levels of bands to perform throughout the day.

The bands were also judged on a sight reading portion, this was the first time since before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that bands performed this section.

“I tried to prepare them ahead of time for what to expect,” Band Director Bradley Beyer said, “The students played really well.”

The Thunder Bay Junior High Symphonic Band, Alpena High School Symphony Band and Alpena High School Wind Ensemble all earned straight 1’s from the judges in both performance and sight reading sections of the competition — the highest ratings a band can earn.

The Thunder Bay Junior High Band performed “Mystery Bay March”, “Snake Charmer” and “Fire Dance”; Alpena High’s Wind Ensemble performed “Peacemaker March,” “Iron and Ice: A Viking Adventure,” and “Fate of the Gods.” Alpena High’s Symphony Band performed “Shadow Cove March,” Raptor Rides the Whale,” and “The Country Club Stomp!”

Other local bands who performed Tuesday included the Alcona High School Band; the Atlanta High School Concert Band; the Alcona Junior High School Band; the Oscoda High School Symphony Band; the Atlanta Junior High School Concert Band; and the Oscoda Middle School Seventh and Eighth Grade Band.

“It is cool for the students to step up and give 100 percent,” Beyer said. “The comments that the judges gave were complimentary, which is always a good feeling. We are here to learn that is the goal.”